UC-NRLF 


EXCHANGE 


THE   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHORUS 
IN   THE   GERMAN   DRAMA 


BY 


ELSIE  WINIFRED  HELMRICH 


SUBMITTED  IN  PARTIAL  FULFILMENT  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS  FOR 

THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY,  IN  THE  FACULTY 

OF  PHILOSOPHY,  COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 


NEW  YORK 
1912 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  GERMANIC  STUDIES 


THE  CHORUS   IN   THE  GERMAN 
DRAMA 


COLUMBIA 

UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

SALES  AGENTS 

NEW  YORK: 

LEMCKE  &  BUECHNER 
30-32  WEST  27TH  STREET 

LONDON : 

HENRY  FROWDE 
AMEN  CORNER,  E.C. 

TORONTO : 

HENRY  FROWDE 
25  RICHMOND  STREET,  W. 


THE   HISTORY   OF  THE   CHORUS 
IN   THE   GERMAN   DRAMA 


BY 


ELSIE  WINIFRED  HELMRICH 


SUBMITTED  IN  PARTIAL  FULFILMENT  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS  FOR 

THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY,  IN  THE  FACULTY 

OF  PHILOSOPHY,  COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 


NEW  YORK 
1912 


Copyright,   1912 
BY  COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

Printed  from  type,  August,  1012 


PTGH 


Accepted  for  publication   on  behalf  of  the  Department  of  Ger- 
manic Languages  and  Literatures  of  Columbia  University. 

CALVIN  THOMAS 
New  York,  May  75,  1912. 


254202 


PREFACE 

A  chorus  of  some  kind  occurs  with  more  or  less  frequency 
throughout  the  whole  history  of  the  German  drama.  The 
great  mysteries  or  pageants  of  medieval  Germany  had  their 
origin  in  a  church  chorus,  and  for  a  considerable  period  of  their 
evolution  were  vitally  connected  with  this  chorus.  In  the 
sixteenth  century  enthusiasm  for  the  New  Learning  was 
brought  from  Italy  into  Germany  and  gave  rise  to  the  era  of 
the  Latin  school-comedy  and  the  Reformation  drama  with 
choral  odes  between  the  acts.  In  the  seventeenth  century 
the  Renaissance  drama  of  France  and  Holland  was  introduced, 
and  the  Senecan  chorus  became  an  essential  part  of  the  drama. 
With  this  century  the  chorus  as  a  recognized  part  of  dramatic 
technic  passed  out  of  existence,  but  admiration  for  all  things 
Greek  led,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  to  a  renewed  interest  in 
the  chorus.  Its  value  and  significance  for  the  drama  were 
discussed  by  many  dramatists,  and  in  a  few  cases  it  was  used 
by  way  of  experiment.  During  the  Romantic  period  the 
chorus,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  sporadic  instances,  again 
disappears,  only  to  reappear,  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  in  a  new  form,  that  of  the  orchestra  in  the  music 
dramas  of  Richard  Wagner. 

Although  the  chorus  is  found  in  every  period  of  German 
literature  it  is  not  possible  to  trace  a  definite  line  of  develop- 
ment. The  chorus  of  one  century  did  not  evolve  out  of  the 
chorus  of  the  preceding  century,  but  in  each  case  the  chorus 
was  brought  into  Germany  under  the  direct  influence  of  some 
foreign  literature. 

The  purpose  of  this  dissertation  is  to  examine  the  chorus  as 
used  by  the  German  dramatists;  to  point  out  the  important 
differences  in  the  method  of  treatment  in  the  works  of  authors 
of  different  periods  and  under  different  literary  conditions; 
and  in  the  light  of  these  investigations  to  account  for  the 
failure  to  make  the  chorus  an  essential  part  of  the  technic  of 

vii 


Vlll 

the  drama.  This  examination  is  limited  to  the  original  dramas 
in  which  the  chorus  appears.  All  discussion  of  the  chorus  in 
translations,  paraphrases,  or  in  the  various  "Festspiele, " 
"Singspiele"  and  operas  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries  has  been  omitted. 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  acknowledge  my  indebtedness  to  Professor 
Calvin  Thomas  for  good  counsel  and  helpful  criticism  in  the 
writing  of  this  dissertation.  My  sincere  thanks  are  also  due 
to  Professor  William  H.  Carpenter,  Professor  William  A. 
Hervey,  and  Professor  Arthur  F.  J.  Remy  of  the  Germanic 
Department,  and  Professor  James  Egbert  of  the  Department 
of  Classical  Philology  for  their  kind  interest  in  my  work  at 
all  times. 

NEW  YORK,  April  8,  1912. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I. — INTRODUCTION i 

II. — THE  CHORUS  IN  THE  EARLY  CHURCH  PLAYS      .  10 

III. — THE  CHORUS   UNDER  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE 

LATIN  COMEDY 23 

IV. — FROM  GRYPHIUS  TO  GOTTSCHED        ...  43 

V. — THE  CHORUS  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AND  NINE- 
TEENTH CENTURIES 63 

BIBLIOGRAPHY         ......  90 

INDEX  OF  PROPER  NAMES  95 


IX 


CHAPTER  I 
INTRODUCTION 

An  exhaustive  study  of  the  history  of  the  chorus  in  the 
German  drama  is  impossible  without  taking  into  consideration 
the  development  which  the  original  Greek  chorus  underwent 
in  the  Roman,  Italian,  French,  Dutch  and  English  drama 
before  it  was  brought  into  Germany  in  the  sixteenth,  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries.  For,  owing  to  the  break  in 
the  history  of  German  literature  during  the  Thirty  Years' 
War  and  the  breach  caused  by  the  essentially  different  com- 
prehension of  the  drama  that  resulted  from  the  teachings  of 
Lessing,  the  dramatists  of  one  century  were  not  influenced  by 
those  of  the  preceding  century,  but  in  each  case  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  chorus  was  due  to  an  influx  of  foreign  ideas. 

Greek  drama, *  originating  as  it  did  in  the  primitive  hymns 
sung  by  the  rustic  revellers  at  the  rural  festivals  in  honor  of 
Dionysus,  the  god  of  wine,  was  in  its  earliest  form  entirely 
lyrical.  Clad  in  goatskins,  the  inhabitants  of  the  Attic 
village  gathered  around  a  rustic  altar,  and  as  they  sang  accom- 
panied their  songs  with  dances  under  the  direction  of  a  leader 
who  regulated  the  movements  of  the  dance.  As  time  passed, 
the  leader  of  the  chorus  related,  during  the  pauses  in  the  sing- 
ing, the  adventures  of  Dionysus,  his  sufferings  and  triumphs, 
and  the  chorus  expressed  in  song  and  in  appropriate  move- 
ments and  gestures  the  feelings  aroused  by  the  story.  Here 
we  have  the  intermediate  stage  in  the  transition  from  chorus 
to  drama.  Gradually  the  rude  improvisation  gave  way  to 

1  My  chief  authorities,  in  dealing  with  this  introductory  phase  of  the 
subject,  were  A.  E.  Haigh,  The  Attic  Theatre,  Oxford,  1907;  L.  Campbell, 
A  Guide  to  Greek  Tragedy,  London,  1891 ;  H.  E.  Butler,  Post-Augustan  Poetry 
from  Seneca  to  Juvenal,  Oxford,  1909;  A.  Chassang,  Des  essais  dramatiques 
imites  de  Vantiquite  au  XIVe  et  au  XV'  siecle,  Paris,  1852.  Others  are 
referred  to  in  the  footnotes. 

i 


chants  in  regular  lyric  form  and  the  satyric  chorus  developed 
into  the  dignified  chorus  with  strophe,  antistrophe  and  epode 
as  found  in  later  tragedy.  The  chants  were  no  longer  sung 
by  the  whole  group  of  revellers,  but  by  a  trained  chorus  of 
fifty  persons,  and  thus,  even  before  the  dramatic  element  had 
begun  to  develop,  the  chorus  had  reached  an  artistic  form. 
The  dithyrambs,  or  choral  songs  and  dances,  were  still  further 
developed  when  an  actor  was  introduced,  and  the  dialogue  was 
no  longer  carried  on  between  the  leader  and  the  whole  chorus, 
but  between  the  leader  and  this  actor. 

When  ^Eschylus  began  to  compose  his  dramas  Greek  trage- 
dy was  a  sacred  choral  performance  the  chief  interest  of  which 
was  centered  in  the  lyrics  of  the  chorus ;  while  the  simple  plot 
sustained  by  the  declamations  of  the  actor,  or  by  dialogues 
between  this  actor  and  the  chorus,  served  as  the  thread  by 
which  the  whole  was  held  together.  ^Eschylus  by  the  intro- 
duction of  a  second  actor  so  far  limited  the  choral  parts  as  to 
make  them  secondary  to  the  action;  for  when  the  chorus  was 
no  longer  necessary  for  the  representation  of  the  plot  the 
center  of  interest  was  transferred  from  the  orchestra  to  the 
stage.  But  although  ^Eschylus  subordinated  the  chorus  to 
the  dialogue  he  made  no  abrupt  departure  from  the  choral 
drama  of  his  predecessors.  His  tragedies  are  still  in  the  form 
of  an  oratorio,  and  the  lyric  odes  are  closely  related  to  the 
action  itself;  but  the  development  of  his  dramatic  powers 
shows  that  from  his  time  the  history  of  the  chorus  is  a  history 
of  gradual  decay. 

According  to  Haigh2  the  increasing  subordination  of  the 
chorus  takes  two  distinct  forms.  "  In  the  first  place  there  is  a 
gradual  diminution  in  the  length  of  the  part  assigned  to  the 
chorus,"  and,  secondly  to  quote  Haigh  again,  there  is  appar- 
ent "a  constant  tendency  to  reduce  the  importance  of  the 
chorus  by  severing  its  connection  with  the  plot."  The 
"Suppliants,"  the  earliest  of  existing  Greek  tragedies,  con- 
sists of  long  choral  songs  and  the  dialogue  is  short  and  of 
little  importance.  Moreover,  the  interest  is  centered  in  the 
fate  of  the  fugitive  maidens,  and  the  parts  of  Danaiis,  the 
a  The  Attic  Theatre,  p.  285. 


king,  and  the  herald  merely  connect  the  various  chants  of  the 
maidens.  In  the  "Seven  against  Thebes,"  however,  a  dis- 
tinct advance  is  made  in  the  development  of  the  drama.  The 
chorus  has  lost  much  of  its  old  significance  and  Eteocles  is 
the  central  figure;  while  in  "Prometheus"  the  chorus  for  the 
first  time  begins  to  assume  the  conventional  and  subordinate 
r61e  that  it  fills  in  Sophocles  and  in  the  early  dramas  of  Euri- 
pides. "It  was  at  this  period,"  says  Haigh,3  "that  Attic 
tragedy  reached  its  highest  perfection,  and  the  question  as 
to  the  proper  place  of  the  chorus  in  the  plot  was  solved  in 
the  manner  most  consistent  with  the  genius  of  Greek  drama. 
The  chorus  is  now  thrown  much  further  into  the  background 
and  appears  in  most  plays,  not  as  a  participant  in  the  action, 
but  merely  as  a  sympathetic  witness.  While  the  dialogue 
is  proceeding  it  follows  the  course  of  events  with  the  keenest 
interest,  but  seldom  actively  interferes.  In  the  pauses 
between  the  action  it  moralizes  on  the  significance  of  the  inci- 
dents which  have  just  occurred .  Such  is  its  position  during  the 
middle  of  the  (fifth)  century.  It  has  been  removed  from  the 
stress  and  turmoil  of  the  action  into  a  calmer  and  more  remote 
region,  though  it  still  preserves  its  interest  in  the  events  upon 
the  stage. "  In  the  later  plays  of  Euripides  the  development 
is  continued.  Euripides  is,  in  a  sense,  the  first  modern  drama- 
tist, and  he  changes  the  drama  and  with  it  the  chorus  to 
suit  his  needs.  Not  able  to  eliminate  entirely  the  chorus  from 
Greek  tragedy,  he  justifies  its  presence  by  making  it  the  con- 
fidant of  the  principal  actor.4  "In  the  pauses  between  the 
dialogue  it  sings  odes  of  a  mythological  character,  which  have 
only  the  remotest  connection  with  the  incidents  of  the  plot.  "s 
That  the  evolution  of  the  chorus  continued  along  these  lines 
is  seen  from  the  words  of  Aristotle6,  who  complains  of  the 
practice  first  begun  by  Agathon  and  followed  by  the  poets  of 
his  own  time;  namely  of  introducing  "choral  songs  that  per- 

3  Op.  cit.,  p.  286. 

*  Cf .  the  chorus  of  sympathizing  women  in  the  Medea,  and  the  scene 
between  Phaedra,  the  nurse  and  the  chorus  in  Hippolytus. 
s  Haigh,  op.  cit.,  p.  286. 
6  Poetics,  edited  by  S.  Butcher,  London,  1902,  c.  18. 


tain  as  little  to  the  subject  of  the  piece  as  to  that  of  any  other 
tragedy,  and  which  are  therefore  sung  as  mere  interludes." 
When  Aristotle  in  writing  the  "Poetics"  demanded  "that  the 
chorus  should  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  actors,  that  it  should 
be  an  integral  part  of  the  whole  and  share  in  the  action,  in 
the  manner  not  of  Euripides  but  of  Sophocles,"  he  based  his 
observations  upon  the  Greek  drama  of  the  great  classic  period. 
But,  in  making  this  requirement,  he  failed  to  realize  that,  in 
the  time  that  had  elapsed  between  the  writing  of  "King 
Oedipus"  and  the  "Poetics,"  the  natural  evolution  of  the 
Greek  drama  had  forced  the  lyric  element  far  into  the  back- 
ground, and  that  any  return  to  the  older  type  of  drama  was 
impossible.  "We  can  hardly  doubt,"  says  Haigh,7  "that  the 
tendency  already  strongly  marked  in  Euripides  had  been 
developed  to  its  natural  results,  and  that  the  tragic  chorus  of 
the  later  fourth  century  was  practically  excluded  from  all 
share  in  the  conduct  of  the  play.  After  the  fourth  century 
very  little  is  known  about  its  history.  But  the  evidence  seems 
to  show  that  it  was  sometimes  discarded  even  as  early  as  the 
third  century ;  and  in  later  times  this  came  to  be  more  and  more 
the  ordinary  custom.  Even  when  retained,  its  functions  were 
merely  those  of  the  modern  band. " 

In  the  lyrical  portion  of  the  Greek  drama  "music,  poetry 
and  dancing  were  all  brought  into  requisition.  "8  The  poetry 
was,  however,  in  all  cases  the  important  part  of  the  perfor- 
mance, while  the  music  and  dancing  served  to  interpret  and 
add  vividness  to  the  meaning  of  the  words.  But  the  dance  as 
a  feature  of  Greek  tragedy  must  be  distinguished  from  the 
modern  dance.  The  Greek  dance  was  essentially  mimetic 
in  character;  its  principal  function  being  to  interpret  and 
illustrate  the  poetry  by  appropriate  gesticulation.  Aristotle 
defines  the  tragic  dance  as  "an imitation  of  actions,  characters 
and  emotions  by  means  of  postures  and  rhythmical  move- 
ments. "9  As  a  rule  the  motions  were  grave  and  majestic, 
and  more  like  walking  than  dancing  in  the  modern  sense. 
The  music  of  the  Greek  tragedy  was  also  simple  in  character. 
The  choral  odes  were  chanted  in  unison,  syllable  after  syllable, 

*  Op.  cit.,  p.  287.  8  Ibid.,  p.  311.  '  Poetics,  c.  I. 


by  the  chorus.  Both  the  singing  and  the  instrumental  accom- 
paniment, which  was  generally  limited  to  a  single  flute  or 
harp,  were  always  subordinate  to  the  poetry.  By  the  blend- 
ing of  poetry,  dancing  and  music  into  one  harmonious  whole, 
the  Greek  chorus  was  enabled  to  make  a  threefold  appeal  to 
the  audience;  the  appeal  of  beautiful  poetry  and  profound 
thought,  secondly  the  sensuous  appeal  of  rhythmic  motions 
explaining  and  intensifying  the  meaning  of  the  words,  and 
finally  that  of  appropriate  music  accompanying  both. 

When  at  the  close  of  the  Punic  Wars  the  Romans  turned 
seriously  to  the  study,  translation  and  imitation  of  Greek 
literature,  it  was  the  drama  to  which  they  first  gave  their 
attention.  For  a  brief  period  the  writing  of  tragedy  continued 
to  be  popular,  and  it  became  customary  to  give  performances 
at  all  the  festivals  of  the  city. I0  But,  for  the  Romans,  the  less 
refined  pleasures  of  the  amphitheatre,  such 'as  the  horse  races 
and  the  gladiatorial  combats,  possessed  far  greater  fascination 
than  the  drama.  With  them  the  theatre  never  could  become 
the  absorbing  passion  that  it  was  to  the  Greeks;  and  when, 
under  Greek  influence,  they  took  up  dramatic  writing,  they 
produced  a  purely  exotic  form  of  literature;  plays  that,  in 
many  cases,  were  merely  translations  of  the  Greek  drama, 
especially  of  Euripides.11  As  time  went  on,  interest  in  the 
drama  died  out ;  even  in  the  early  Empire  it  had  given  way  to 
the  mime  and  pantomime,  and  from  that  time  drama  proper 
existed  only  as  closet-drama,  which  was  written  by  literary 
men  either  as  a  pastime  or  for  the  entertainment  of  their 
friends.  There  is  no  evidence  of  the  performance  of  any 
tragedy  on  the  Roman  stage  during  the  "  Silver  Age.  "I2  The 
only  extant  Roman  tragedies  from  this  later  period  are  those 
of  Seneca,  important  in  the  history  of  the  chorus  because  of 

10  For  the  popularity  of  the  plays  of  Ennius,  M.  Pacuvius  and  L.  Accius, 
cf.  Sellar,  Roman  Poets  of  the  Republic,  Oxford,  1905,  p.  120. 

11  The  chorus  was  brought  over  into  the  early  Roman  drama,  but  it  is 
impossible  to  judge  from  the  few  extant  fragments  anything  of  its  treat- 
ment by  the  dramatists  of  that  period.     For  a  discussion  of  the  chorus  in 
Roman  tragedy  cf .  Ribbeck,  Romische  Tragodie,  pp.  637  ff . 

2  H.  E.  Butler,  Post- Augustan  Poetry  from  Seneca  to  Juvenal,  p.  44. 


the  influence  he  exerted  on  the  tragedy  of  the  Renaissance. 
In  examining  the  plays  of  Seneca  we  find  a  still  further 
development  of  the  chorus.  Soon  after  the  introduction  of 
tragedy  into  Rome  the  orchestra  ceased  to  be  used  for  the 
chorus,  but  was  given  up  to  the  Roman  senators;  and  the 
chorus,  thus  crowded  out  of  the  orchestra,  had  to  be  brought 
on  the  stage.  This  innovation  had  an  important  effect  upon 
the  chorus.  With  the  abolition  of  choral  dances  around  the 
altar  in  the  orchestra  the  drama  lost  its  religious  signifi- 
cance. Moreover,  the  nature  of  the  chorus  itself  was  changed. 
When  it  occupied  the  stage  with  the  actors,  who  were  no 
longer  limited  to  three,  there  was  no  space  for  the  choral 
dance  with  its  rhythmic  movements  to  the  right  and  then  to 
the  left,  as  the  strophe,  antistrophe  and  epode  were  sung.  There 
was,  accordingly,  a  tendency  to  thrust  the  chorus  more  and 
more  into  the  background,  until  it  gradually  became  custom- 
ary for  the  chorus  to  remain  off  the  stage  during  the  action 
and  appear  only  between  the  acts.  As  the  Roman  tragedies 
were  no  longer  produced  but  merely  declaimed  or  recited  in  the 
presence  of  the  friends  of  the  dramatist,  the  incongruity  of 
having  the  chorus  comment  upon  events  of  which  it  was  not 
a  witness  was  not  very  apparent.  But  as  a  result  the  drama 
lost  touch  with  the  stage.  In  Euripides  the  connection 
between  the  chorus  and  the  plot  is  slight,  in  Seneca  it  disap- 
pears entirely,  and  the  r61e  of  the  chorus  is  formal,  artificial 
and  ineffectual.  It  is  used  to  set  forth  long  descriptions  and 
bombastic  declamations  in  the  style  of  the  Alexandrian  school. 
The  chorus  is  no  longer  needed,  but  is  kept  partly  as  a  matter 
of  tradition,  partly  to  supply  music  between  the  acts.  The 
meter  in  the  choruses  of  Seneca  differs  from  that  of  the  Greeks. 
There  is  no  system  of  strophe,  antistrophe  and  epode.  The 
choral  songs  are  generally  in  the  form  of  stanzas  which  are 
repeated  without  variations.  "The  choruses  in  'Agamem- 
non' and  'Oedipus'  are  composed  of  fragments  of  Horatian 
meter,  thinly  disguised  by  inversions  and  resolutions  of 
feet."13  The  anapestic,  asclepiad,  sapphic  and  glyconic 
meters  are  also  frequently  employed. 
x*  Butler,  op.  cit.,  p.  71. 


During  the  Italian  Renaissance,  Seneca  exerted  the  pre- 
dominating influence  on  the  development  first  of  the  Latin 
drama  and  then  of  the  vernacular  drama  produced  under  its 
stimulus.  At  a  time  when  Latin  literature  was  much  better 
known  than  Greek  the  tragedies  of  Seneca  were  regarded  as 
the  highest  expression  of  ancient  dramatic  art,  and  every 
drama  from  Mussato  to  Alfieri  shows  the  effect  of  the  Senecan 
technic:  the  long  speeches,  the  bombastic  style,  the  division 
into  five  acts  and  especially  the  use  of  the  chorus.14  But  in 
the  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth  century,  although  Seneca  was 
not  forgotten,  the  return  to  classic  literature  found  expression 
in  enthusiasm  for  Roman  comedy.15  It  was  this  phase  of 
the  humanistic  movement  that  was  brought  into  Germany  in 
the  sixteenth  century  and  which  for  the  entire  century  ab- 
sorbed the  attention  of  the  German  dramatists.  But  in 
Italy  the  enthusiasm  quickly  passed,  and  in  the  sixteenth 
century  the  imitation  of  Seneca  was  again  taken  up.  Italian 
literature  was  at  its  height  in  the  sixteenth  century  and  it  was 
due  to  the  late  Italian  humanists  that  Seneca  was  accepted  as 
the  model  for  French,  Dutch,  Spanish  and  English  drama. 
The  imitation  of  Seneca  became  a  rule  of  art  for  the  French 
classical  drama.  Jodelle  and  Gamier,  "though  continually 
referring  to  the  Greek  masterpieces,  slavishly  imitated  the 
Latin  tragedy"16  and  handed  the  Senecan  tradition  down  to 
their  successors.  The  chorus  has  an  important  part  in  the 
French  drama  of  the  sixteenth  century.  To  use  the  words  of 
E.  Faguet,17  "On  pourrait  presque  dire  que  la  trageMie  du 
XVP  sidcle  est  une  oeuvre  lyrique;  car  c'est  toujours  la  partie 
lyrique  qui  en  est  la  partie  plus  soignee  et  souvent  qui  en  est 
la  meilleure. " 

But,  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  when 

14  Cf.  J.   Cunliffe,    The   Influence  of  Seneca  on   Elizabethan    Tragedy. 
London,  1893,  p.  7. 

15  Cf.  A.  Chassang,  Des  essais  dramatiques  imites  de  Vantiquitt  au  XIVe 
et  au  XV  siecle,  pp.  61  ff. 

16  Ibid.,  pp.  188-189. 

^^  Histoire  de  la  litter ature  fran$aise,  Paris,  1894,  Vol.  I,  p.  456.  Cf. 
also  J.  Cunliffe,  Early  French  Tragedy  (in  Journal  of  Comparative  Litera- 
ture, I,  4,  p.  3 1 6). 


8 

psychological  development  and  individual  interest  began  to 
play  a  part  in  tragedy,  the  presence  of  the  chorus  was  felt  to 
be  cumbersome.  The  chorus  as  it  had  been  taken  over  from 
the  Italian  drama  no  longer  appealed  to  public  taste,  and  the 
dramatists  were  forced  to  contrive  some  means  of  making  its 
continual  presence  less  awkward.  It  became  customary  to 
omit  the  chorus  at  the  presentation  of  the  play,  and  there  was 
accordingly  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  poets  to  disregard 
it  in  the  writing  of  the  play.  "Les  chceurs, "  said  Jean  de 
Boissin, l8  in  the  preface  to  his  "  Didon, "  "  y  sont  obmis  comme 
superflus  a  la  representation."  The  chorus,  however,  con- 
tinued to  appear  with  more  or  less  regularity  until,  in  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  Corneille  undertook  to  purify  the 
French  drama  and  abolished  it  completely.  But  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  chorus  left  a  gap  in  the  technic  of  the  drama.  Eu- 
ripides, as  we  have  seen,  had  to  a  certain  extent  made  the 
chorus  the  confidant  of  the  leading  person;  the  chorus  by  its 
questions  enabled  the  actor  to  set  forth  those  inner  emotions 
and  feelings  which  could  not  be  made  known  to  the  other 
actors  and  yet  were  necessary  for  the  audience  to  know  in  the 
development  of  the  plot.  This  was  an  important  r61e  of  the 
chorus  in  the  sixteenth  century  drama.  After  Corneille,  the 
chorus  does  not  again  appear  in  the  French  drama;19  but  with 
Racine  the  confidant  began  to  occupy  the  position  formerly 
filled  by  the  chorus.  The  confidant,  who  did  not  exist  in  the 
early  drama,  was  not  a  direct  outcome  of  the  chorus,  but  was 
introduced  some  time  after  its  abolition  to  bring  about  the 
motivation  of  the  plot,  as  had  previously  been  done  by  the 
chorus.  The  confidant  is,  therefore,  in  a  way,  a  degenerate 
form  of  the  chorus,  and  as  such  was  taken  over  into  the  German 
drama  by  Gottsched. 

Under  the  influence  of  the  Renaissance  drama  of  Italy  and 
France,  Lyly,  Greene,  Peele,  Kyd,  Marlowe  and  the  other 

18  Quoted  from  E.  Fournier,  Le  the&tre  fran$ais  au  XVIe  et  au  XVII* 
silcle,  Paris,  1871,  p.  ix. 

»»  Racine's  Athalie  and  Esther  may  be  regarded  as  exceptions  to  the  regu- 
lar drama,  since  they  were  not  written  for  the  stage,  but  to  be  performed 
by  the  girls  of  a  certain  school. 


Elizabethan  dramatists  introduced  choral  songs  after  the  acts 
of  their  plays.  Such  a  practice  was,  however,  foreign  to  the 
English  spirit  and  the  chorus  did  not  long  remain  on  the  stage 
in  its  original  form.  The  chorus  in  Shakespeare's  "  Henry  V  " 
has  nothing  in  common  with  the  antique  chorus.  Instead  of 
moralizing  on  the  events  of  the  preceding  act  it  looks  for- 
ward to  the  following  act,  and  by  giving  the  audience  a  mental 
picture  of  the  events  that  are  to  take  place  produces  4<  at- 
mosphere" and,  to  a  certain  extent,  takes  the  place  of  stage 
scenery.  The  old  rdle  of  the  chorus,  that  of  ideal  spectator 
or  actor,  was  given  to  the  clown  or  the  court  fool. 

Through  the  Renaissance  drama  of  France,  Seneca  was 
brought  into  Holland  and  affected  the  plays  of  Hooft  and  Von- 
del.  In  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  Dutch 
dramatists  followed  the  Senecan  technic  closely,  but  toward 
the  middle  of  the  century  they  began  to  turn  their  attention 
to  Greek  tragedy.  Seneca  always  remained  the  model  for 
Hooft,  as  he  was  for  the  early  plays  of  Vondel,  but  in  1639 
the  latter  turned  from  Seneca  to  the  imitation  of  Sophocles. 
Dutch  literature  was  at  its  height  in  the  middle  of  the  seven- 
teenth century;  and  when,  at  the  close  of  the  Thirty  Years' 
War,  the  Germans  again  turned  to  literary  pursuits,  Gryphius 
and  his  followers  took  the  Dutch  tragedies  as  their  models 
and  brought  into  Germany  the  chorus  as  used  by  Hooft  and 
Vondel. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  CHORUS  IN  THE  EARLY  CHURCH  PLAYS 

Even  before  the  Revival  of  Learning  and  the  return  to 
classical  studies  we  find  in  the  German  drama  a  chorus, 
similar  in  its  early  stages  to  the  Greek  chorus, *  but  in  no  way 
influenced  by  the  antique  drama.  For  in  the  Middle  Ages2 
there  was  almost  a  complete  break  in  the  dramatic  tradition 
of  classical  antiquity. 3  The  scholars  of  the  tenth  and  eleventh 
centuries  were  familiar  with  merely  the  names  of  the  Greek 
dramatists,  while  they  knew  but  little  more  of  the  comedies 
of  Plautus  and  the  tragedies  of  Seneca.  Terence  alone  had 
escaped  oblivion,  but  his  plays  were  read  and  studied  not 
because  of  their  dramatic  merit,  but  because  he  was  regarded 
as  a  great  teacher  of  the  philosophy  of  life.4  There  is  no 
evidence  that  his  plays  were  ever  performed  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  or  that  any  attention  was  paid  to  their  metrical  form 

1  There  is  a  similarity  between  the  early  development  of  the  Greek 
drama  and  of  the  Christian  Mysteries.  They  were  both  religious;  the 
Greek  originating  in  the  religious  festivals  in  honor  of  Dionysus,  the 
mysteries  as  a  part  of  the  Easter  morning  service.  They  both  had  their 
origin  in  the  chorus,  and  in  the  course  of  their  evolution  the  lyric  element 
was  thrust  into  the  background  and  the  dramatic  element  became  all- 
important.  But  they  soon  developed  along  widely  different  lines. 

3  Cf.  W.  Creizenach,  Geschichte  des  neueren  Dramas,  Halle,  1893,  Vol.  I, 

pp.  1-2. 

*  Cf .  however,  J.  Tunison,  Dramatic  Traditions  of  the  Dark  Ages,  Chicago, 
1907,  pp.  123-133  and  pp.  137-182;  W.  Lawton,  Three  Dramas  of  Euripides, 
Boston  and  New  York,  1889,  p.  4,  and  A.E.  Haigh,  The  Tragic  Drama  of 
the  Greeks,  p.  3,  who  argue  that  the  medieval  church  plays  were  a  develop- 
ment of  the  Greek  drama  through  an  unbroken  historical  connection. 

4  Cf .  Hroswitha  von  Gandersheim,  whose  plays  were  written  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  counteracting  the  evil  influence  of  Terence  and  of  elevating  the 
morals  of  their  readers.     In  the  preface  to  her  six  comedies,  she  says: 
"  Sunt  etiam  alii — qui  licet  alia  gentilium  spernant,  Terentii  tamen  figmenta 
frequentius  lectitant,  et,  dum  dulcedine  sermonis  delectantur,  nefandarum 
notitia  rerum   maculantur.      Unde  ego,  clamor  validus   Gandeshemensis, 

10 


II 

or  dramatic  technic.5  When,  accordingly,  the  priests  at- 
tempted to  bring  the  teachings  of  the  Catholic  church  more 
clearly  before  the  minds  of  the  unlettered  people  who  could 
not  understand  Latin,  by  representing  the  ritual  in  dramatic 
form,  they  were  ignorant  of  even  the  most  elementary  dramatic 
laws;  and  the  crude,  formless  pageants  that  evolved  out  of 
these  simple  beginnings  were  an  unconscious  and  natural 
product  of  the  needs  of  the  time.6  These  medieval  plays  had 
their  origin  in  a  brief  responsive  chant  that  can  be  traced  back 
to  the  tenth  century.7  This  chant,  which  is  the  nucleus  of  all 
the  later  Easter  plays,  consists  of  the  following  sentences, 
sung  alternately  by  the  angels  of  the  Resurrection  and  the 
women  who  visit  the  grave:8 

1  Quern  queritis  in  sepulchre,  o  christicole? 

2  Jesum  Nazarenum  crucifixum,  o  caelicole. 

3  Non  est  hie,  surrexit  sicut  praedixerat,  ite,  nuntiate,  quia 

surrexit  de  sepulchre. 

4  Surrexit  dominus  de  sepulchro,  qui  pro  nobis  pependit  in 

ligno. 

After  the  third  responsory  and  before  the  Te  Deum  of  the 
early  mass  on  Easter  Sunday  morning,  the  choir9  walked  in  sol- 
emn procession  to  a  wooden  structure  which  was  built  before 

non  recusavi  ilium  imitari  dictando,  quern  alii  colunt  legendo;  quo,  eodem 
dictationis  genere,  quo  turpia  lascivarum  incesta  feminarum  recitabantur, 
laudabilis  sacrarum  castimonia  virginum,  juxta  mei  facultatem  ingenioli, 
celebraretur."  (In  Migne,  J.  P.,  ed.  Patrologiae  cursus  completus.  .  .  . 
series  Latina,  1879,  Vol.  137,  col.  939-1196,  p.  971.) 

5  One  illustration  of  the  confusion  with  regard  to  the  drama  in  the  Middle 
Ages  is  the  idea  that  one  actor  recited  the  whole  play,  while  the  others  did 
the  acting;  "dass  ein  einziger  Recitator  das  ganze  Stuck  mit  Rede  und 
Gegenrede  vortrug  und  dass  dazu  mehrere  stumme  Darsteller  die  Empfin- 
dungen  der  einzelnen  Personen  des  Dramas  durch  Gebardenspiel  aus- 
druckten."     (Creizenach,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  I,  p.  5.) 

6  The  religious  drama  arose  about  the  tenth  century.     Cf .  Creizenach, 
op.  cit.,  Vol.  I,  p.  48. 

?Cf.  R.  Froning,  Das  Drama  des   Mittelalters,  Stuttgart,  1891,  Vol.   I 
(vol.  14  of  Kurschner's  Deutsche  Nationalliteratur). 
8  The  text  is  from  Froning,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  I,  p.  13. 
» These  Easter  services  were  always  performed  by  priests. 


12 

the  principal  altar  of  the  church  and  represented  the  tomb 
of  Christ.  There  it  separated  into  two  parts,  one  singing 
the  words  of  the  three  Marys  and  the  other  those  of  the  two 
angels.  In  the  course  of  time  it  became  customary  for  the  choir 
to  remain  in  its  place  and  for  two  groups  to  walk  toward  the 
grave  and  sing  alternately  the  four  Latin  sentences  of  the  ritual. 
These  groups  in  turn  gave  way  to  individuals,  and  the  chant 
was  sung  by  three  members  of  one  group,  personating  the  three 
Marys,  and  by  two  of  the  other,  personating  the  angels.  The 
latter  took  their  position  near  the  grave,  while  the  former  ad- 
vanced only  a  short  distance  from  the  chorus. I0  When  the  chant 
was  finished  the  women  returned  to  the  chorus,  announced  the 
news  with  the  words  "  surrexit  dominus  de  sepulchro, "  and  the 
performance  ended  with  a  Te  Deum  sung  by  the  chorus. 

A  wish  to  acquaint  the  people  still  further  with  the  meaning 
of  the  services  led  to  the  introduction  of  more  sentences  from 
the  liturgy.  The  first  expansion11  was  the  invitation  to  the 
women  to  come  and  see  the  place  where  the  Lord  lay.12  As 
time  passed  new  elements  were  added  and  other  actors 
were  taken  from  the  chorus.  The  mourning  women  had  been 
told  to  report  the  news  to  the  disciples.  Accordingly,  Peter 
and  John  were  introduced, I3  although  in  most  cases  they  were 
thought  of  together  as  "discipuli."  While  the  chorus  sang 
the  "Currebant  duo  simul"  of  the  liturgy  the  apostles  has- 
tened to  the  grave,  were  convinced  of  the  Resurrection,  and 
returned  with  the  words  "  Cernitis,  o  socii. "  The  women  and 
the  angels  had  been  regarded  as  groups,  but  with  the  intro- 
duction of  Peter  and  John  we  get  a  hint  of  the  individualization 
of  character  that  was  to  be  more  clearly  brought  out  in  the 
further  development  of  the  Easter  services. x  4  The  next  change 

10  In  the  Easter  services  the  rdle  of  chorus  is  taken  by  the  choir,  and  I 
shall  use  the  term  chorus  when  referring  to  the  choir. 

11  Cf.  Osterfeier,  Strassburg  I  (Antiphonar,  1200),  text  in  Froning,  op. 
cit.,  Vol.  I,  p.  14. 

13  "  Venite  et  videte  locum  ubi  positus  erat  dominus." 

*3  Cf.  Osterfeier,  Augsburg  I,  text  in  Froning,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  I,  p.i6. 

J*  The  Germans  distinguish  between  Osterfeier  and  Osterspiel.   It  seems 

advisable  to  do  the  same  in  this  discussion,  and  I  shall  refer  to  Osterfeier 

as  Easter  service  and  Osterspiel  as  Easter  play. 


13 

was  that  the  women,  with  the  exception  of  Mary  Magdalene, 
left  the  tomb  after  they  had  been  told  of  the  Resurrection. 
She  however  remained,  and  a  dialogue  ensued  between  her 
and  Christ,  whom  she  mistook  for  the  gardener.  In  this 
dialogue  we  have  for  the  first  time  characters  that  stand  out 
as  distinct  and  independent  individuals.15 

With  the  scene  between  Christ  and  Mary  Magdalene  the 
evolution  of  the  Easter  service  as  a  part  of  the  Easter  morning 
mass  ceases. *  6  What  was  the  effect  of  this  development  on  the 
chorus?  In  the  first  place  it  had  been  deprived  of  all  particir 
pation  in  the  action.  The  liturgy,  which  had  originally  been 
sung  by  the  whole  chorus,  was  soon  sung  by  selected  members, 
by  the  groups  of  mourning  women  and  angels.  Thus  we  have 
a  main  chorus  which  stands  aloof  from  the  action,  and  two 
secondary  choruses17  which  play  an  active  rdle  in  it.  These 
minor  choruses,  however,  did  not  long  hold  the  stage.  Indi- 
vidual characters  such  as  Peter  and  John  were  introduced  from 
the  principal  chorus,  and,  although  the  original  liturgical 
sentences  continued  to  be  sung  by  the  groups,  the  members  of 
these  groups  gradually  came  to  be  thought  of  as  distinct 
personages;18  and  new  parts,  when  added,  were  generally 
assigned  to  definite  characters. 

But  even  though  all  dramatic  action  was  taken  from  the 
original  chorus  it  was  not  entirely  forced  into  the  background. 
It  still  existed  as  the  framework  about  which  the  drama  was 
developed.  Up  to  this  time  no  attention  had  been  paid  to 
even  the  most  elementary  dramatic  requirements,  and  when 
the  priests  had  wished  to  lengthen  the  simple  Easter  services 
they  went  to  the  ritual  for  their  material.  These  new  liturgical 
sentences  were  generally  sung  by  the  chorus,  while  the  charac- 
ters performed  the  actions  suggested  by  the  words.  It  was 

15  Cf.  Osterfeier,  Niirnberg  II  (Antiphonar,  13  Jahrh.),  text  in  Froning, 
op.  cit.,  Vol.  I,  p.  17. 

16  These  three  scenes  are  broadened  and  elaborated  by  the  introduction 
of  many  church  songs  and  hymns,  but  no  new  scenes  are  added. 

*?  The  term  "chorus"  may  be  understood  to  mean  any  group  of  two  or 
more  persons  who  sing  together. 

18  Cf.  the  scene  between  Christ  and  Mary  Magdalene. 


always  so,  first  the  liturgical  sentences  and  then  the  actions 
based  upon  them.19  In  these  sentences,  which  might  almost 
be  regarded  as  stage  directions,  the  chorus  tells  what  is  going 
to  take  place,  and  the  action  is  carried  on  as  it  is  described. 
So,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  every  additional  element  brought 
the  individual  more  and  more  into  prominence,  and  at  the 
same  time  made  the  chorus  of  little  significance  in  the  r61e  of 
actor,  the  lyric  elements  continued  to  be  very  important.  The 
Easter  services  always  remained  oratorios  in  character.  This 
is  seen  by  the  fact  that  the  women  sing  as  they  walk  to  the 
grave :  ' '  Et  dicebant  ad  invicem  '  Quis  revolvet  nobis  lapidem 
ab  hostio  monumenti? ' ",  singing  "dicebant "  as  if  it  were  part 
of  the  r61e.20  In  some  of  the  later  plays,  the  chorus,  without 
leaving  its  original  place,  does  to  a  certain  extent  take  part 
in  the  action,  in  that,  when  the  women  are  returning  from  the 
grave,  it  frequently  asks  them  what  they  have  seen,  and  then 
ensues  a  dialogue  between  the  women  and  the  chorus.21 

An  idea  of  the  r61e  played  by  the  chorus  in  the  later  Easter 
services  may  be  obtained  by  examining  the  "Nurnberg  Oster- 
f eier ' '  of  the  thirteenth  century. 2  2  After  the  third  responsory , 
the  chorus  sings:  "Maria  Magdalena'et  alia  Maria  ferebant 
diluculo  aromata,  dominum  querentes  in  monumento. "  The 
three  Marys  then  advance  from  the  chorus  carrying  spices  and 
incense  and  approach  the  tomb,  singing  first  a  hymn  and 
afterward  the  words  "Quis  revolvet  nobis  ab  ostio  lapidem?" 
The  conversation  at  the  grave  between  the  women  and  the 
angels  takes  place  exactly  as  in  the  earlier  performances. 
When  it  is  finished  two  of  the  women  return  to  the  chorus, 
leaving  Mary  Magdalene  weeping  at  the  sepulchre.  In  the 
meantime  the  chorus  sings  "Maria  ploransadmonumentum." 
This  is  followed  by  the  words  of  Mary  "Heu  redemptio 
Israhel,  ut  qui  mortem  sustinuit, "  to  which  the  chorus  an- 

1 9  This  is  illustrated  later. 

20Cf.  Osterfeier,  Bamberg  I,  text  in  C.  Lange,  Die  lateinischen  Oster- 
feiern,  Munchen,  1887,  p.  29. 

21  Cf.  Trier  Osterfeier,  "quibus  versibus  sic  cantatis  chorus  cantet:  Die 
nobis,  Maria,  quid  vidisti  in  via?"  (text  in  Froning,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  I,  p.  15). 

22  The  text  is  from  Froning,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  I,  p.  17. 


15 

swers  "Non  sufficiens  sibi."  Christ  then  appears  and  the 
scene  between  Him  and  Mary  Magdalene  takes  place.  Mary 
returns  to  the  chorus,  and  in  answer  to  the  question  of  the 
disciples,  "Die  nobis  Maria,"23  she  tells  of  the  Resurrection; 
after  which  the  chorus  sings:  "Credendum  est  magis  soli 
Marie  veraci  quam  ludeorum  turbe  fallaci."  Mary  sings, 
"Scio  Christum  surrexisse  a  mortuis  vere, "  and  the  chorus, 
"Tu  nobis,  victor  rex,  miserere."  Peter  and  John  then  run 
to  the  tomb  and,  as  they  are  going,  the  chorus  sings:  "Curre- 
bant  duo  simul  et  ille  alius  discipulus  precucurrit  cicius  Petro 
et  venit  prior  ad  monumentum,  alleluia."  The  disciples 
show  the  linen  and  the  napkin  to  the  chorus,  with  the  words, 
"  Cernitis,  o  socii,  ecce  linteamina  et  sudarium. "  They  return 
to  the  chorus  singing  "Surrexit  enim,  sicut  dixit,  dominus, " 
and  the  performance  ends  with  the  "Te  Deum  laudamus" 
sung  by  the  whole  chorus. 

From  this  analysis  it  may  be  seen  that  the  original  chorus, 
though  not  directly  taking  part  in  the  performance,  is  never- 
theless important  because,  by  the  singing  of  the  liturgical 
sentences,  it  controls  and  directs  the  action.24  There  is  very 
little  direct  conversation  between  it  and  the  actors,  but  consti- 
tuting, as  it  does,  the  central  point  about  which  the  action 
revolves,  and  from  which  the  characters  depart  and  to  which 
they  return,  it  is  indirectly  kept  before  the  eyes  of  the  con- 
gregation. The  r61e  of  the  secondary  choruses  remains 
unchanged,  but  most  of  the  new  parts  are  taken  by  definite 
characters. 

With  the  introduction  of  the  scene  between  Mary  Magdalene 
and  Christ  the  priests  felt  that  the  Easter  services  could  not 
be  developed  further  if  they  were  to  be  a  part  of  the  Easter 
morning  mass.  But  dramatic  expansion  was  inevitable. 
The  people  eagerly  demanded  more  and  more  action,  until  at 
length  the  clergy  were  compelled  to  discontinue  the  Easter 
services  as  a  part  of  the  mass  and  give  them  as  a  sepa- 
rate service.  But,  even  then,  the  elements  that  could  be 
introduced  within  the  church  were  naturally  of  a  limited 

23  In  most  plays  this  is  sung  by  the  chorus. 

a"  In  this  short  play  it  sings  four  sentences  from  the  ritual. 


16 

character;  sentences  from  the  ritual,  scenes  from  the  Gospels 
and  church  hymns.  Latin  was  still  used  and  everything  was 
sung.  The  people  were,  however,  not  long  satisfied  with 
this;  what  they  wanted  was  lively  action,  fun,  dramatic  real- 
ism and,  above  all,  the  German  language.25  As  long  as  the 
plays  remained  in  the  church  these  things  were  impossible; 
but  the  demand  was  so  persistent  that  the  priests  were  finally 
forced  to  take  the  plays  out  of  the  church,  and  from  that  time 
they  were  performed  in  the  market-place.  Here  many  secular 
elements  were  introduced,  together  with  much  that  was  coarse 
and  vulgar.  Many  folk-songs  were  added  and  the  comic 
scenes  were  elaborated  to  such  an  extent  that  they  were  out  of 
proportion  to  the  rest  of  the  drama.  At  the  same  time  the 
German  language  was  introduced,  not  to  take  the  place  of  the 
Latin  which,  in  the  church  plays,  was  never  omitted,  but  in 
the  form  of  translations  or  rather  paraphrases  and  ampli- 
fications of  the  original.  We  frequently  find  a  long  German 
passage  or  even  a  whole  scene  in  explanation  of  a  short  Latin 
sentence;  and  later,  German  sentences  are  introduced  inde- 
pendently of  the  Latin.  Thus  the  German  drama  grew  up,  as 
it  were,  about  the  original  Latin  sentences,  and  in  the  course 
of  time  the  German  elements  became  all-important. 

The  transference  of  the  Easter  play  from  the  church  to  the 
market-place,  with  the  resultant  growth  of  secular  elements 
and  the  increase  of  dramatic  action,  naturally  had  its  effect 
upon  the  chorus.  The  connection  between  the  chorus  and 
the  action  had  long  been  purely  superficial.  The  chorus  was 
no  longer  needed  to  explain  the  action,  and  when  the  plays 
ceased  to  be  performed  in  the  church  it  was  possible  to  break 
away  from  the  old  formal  liturgical  drama  and  the  chorus 
was  omitted  entirely.  Even  in  the  Easter  services  the  rdle 
of  the  chorus  had  been  curtailed  by  the  groups,  as  that  of  the 
groups  was  later  by  the  individual  characters ;  and  now,  when 
all  restraint  of  development  was  removed,  it  was  the  individual 
character  in  whom  the  dramatist  was  interested.  But  al- 
though the  chorus  does  not  appear  certain  of  its  functions 

a*For  the  influence  of  the  "clerici  vagantes"  upon  the  increasing  secular- 
ity  of  the  plays,  cf .  Froning,  op.  tit.,  Vol.  I,  pp.  25-27. 


I7  '     »»» 

are  retained  and  are  bestowed  upon  the  various  actors.  Some 
of  the  liturgical  sentences  that  had  been  sung  by  the  chorus 
were  assigned  to  the  actors  themselves.  Two  sentences  sung 
in  the  Easter  services  by  the  chorus  and  in  the  Easter  plays 
by  Peter  and  John  will  serve  as  illustration.  After  Mary 
Magdalene  announces  the  Resurrection  the  chorus  sings 
"Credendum  est  magis  soli  Marie  veraci  quam  ludeorum 
turbe  fallaci";26  and  while  the  apostles  are  running  to  the 
grave  it  sings:  "Currebant  duo  simul  et  ille  alius  discipulus 
precucurrit  cicius  Petro  et  venit  prior  ad  monumentum, 
alleluia."27  In  the  "Innsbruck  Easterplay"28  the  stage 
direction  reads  as  follows:  "Petrus  et  Johannes  recedunt  et 
cantant  'Credendum  est  magis  soli  Marie'  etc.,  et  corruunt 
ante  sepulchrum  et  cantant '  Currebant  duo  simul  et  ille  alius 
discipulus'";  and  in  the  "Sterzing  Easterplay"29  "Tune 
Petrus  et  Johannes  currunt  ad  monumentum  cantando  '  Cur- 
rebant duo  simul. ' '  Other  liturgical  sentences,  however, 
had  little  significance  beyond  that  of  stage  directions  sung  by 
the  chorus,  and  they  seem  to  have  been  given  up  entirely. 
Many  Easter  services  begin  with  the  sentence:  "Maria  Mag- 
dalena  et  alia  Maria  ferebant  diluculo  aromata,  dominum 
querentes  in  monumento. "  This  does  not  appear  in  the 
Easter  plays,  nor  does  "Maria  plorans  ad  monumentum," 
another  much- used  sentence.  In  the  absence  of  the  chorus 
it  became  customary  for  the  actors  to  address  the  people.30 
In  the  early  Easter  plays  the  Latin  was  sung  by  groups,  as 
it  had  been  in  the  Easter  services,  while  the  German  para- 
phrases were  in  almost  every  case  spoken  by  definite  charac- 
ters.31 In  the  new  portions  such  as  the  merchant-scenes,  all 
the  roles  were  taken  by  individuals;32  save  when  Latin  from 

26  Cf.  Trier  Osterfeier,  ibid.,  Vol.  I,  p.  15. 

3 7  Cf.  Augsburg  Osterfeier,  ibid.,  Vol.  I,  p.  16;  cf.  also  Niirnberg  Osterfeier, 
which  contains  both  sentences.  Ibid.,  Vol.  I,  p.  17. 

**  Ibid.,  Vol.  I,  p.  96.  "  Ibid.,  Vol.  I,  p.  103. 

3°Cf.  SterzingerOsterspiel:  " Petrus  dicit  ad  populum";  "Johannes  dicit 
ad  populum."  (Text  in  A.  Pichler,  Uber  das  Drama  des  Mittelalters  in 
Tirol,  Innsbruck,  1850,  p.  167).  3I  Ibid.,  p.  165. 

3'Cf.  Wolfenbuttler  Osterspiel,  text  in  Froning,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  I,  pp.  60-62; 
also  Erlauer  Spiel,  ibid.,  Vol.  I,  pp.  62-94. 


18 

the  ritual  was  introduced,  in  which  case  the  Latin  was  sung 
by  groups.33 

But  while  there  was  a  tendency  to  put  the  action  more  and 
more  into  the  hands  of  individuals,  there  was  also  a  parallel 
tendency  to  bring  on  the  stage  the  groups  with  which  the 
individuals  were  associated  in  the  Bible.  Consequently,  with 
the  lengthening  of  the  Easter  plays  to  include  the  watch  at 
the  grave  and  Christ's  descent  into  hell,  many  new  groups 
were  added;  as  the  soldiers  of  Pilate  at  the  tomb,  the  angels 
who  awaken  Christ  and  the  souls  imprisoned  in  hell.  It  was 
customary  for  all  the  actors  to  march  upon  the  stage  in  solemn 
procession  before  the  play  began  and  to  remain  there  during 
the  performance.  Thus  there  was  always  a  great  mass  of 
actors  on  the  stage,  who  for  convenience  grouped  themselves 
about  the  principal  actors.  When,  in  the' course  of  this  drama- 
tic epic,  one  event  after  the  other  was  enacted,  each  leading 
character,  as  he  came  to  the  front,  brought  with  him  his 
particular  group,  and  each  group  in  its  turn  played  the  r61e  of 
the  chorus;  as  chorus  of  angels,  of  devils,  of  souls,  etc.34  These 
groups  were  continually  changing  during  the  process  of  the 
action,  and  consequently  we  never  find  one  definite  chorus 
throughout  the  play. 

Under  the  influence  of  the  Easter  plays  arose  the  Passion 
plays,35  in  which  the  choral  groups  are  even  more  prominent; 
for,  inasmuch  as  the  action  of  these  plays  generally  included 
the  principal  events  in  the  life  of  Christ  from  His  baptism  to 
His  burial,  a  greater  opportunity  was  given  for  the  introduc- 
tion of  groups;  as  followers  of  John  the  Baptist,  apostles 
of  Christ,  angels,  wicked  Jews,  prophets,  etc.  These  choral 
groups  were  more  vitally  connected  with  the  drama  than  was 
the  original  chorus,  for  they  took  an  active  part,  as  it  had  not 
done.  Thus  it  happens  that  in  the  later  Easter  and  Passion 

"Cf.  Redentiner  Osterspiel,  where,  in  the  scene  in  which  Christ  releases 
the  souls  imprisoned  in  hell,  are  found  directions  such  as:  "Et  cantant 
anime,"  "Et  ducit  animas,  que  cantant."  (Ibid.,  Vol.  I,  pp.  123-198.) 

34  These  various  choral  groups  remained  distinct  throughout  the  play. 

35  Although  some  Passion  plays  are  older  than  the  Easter  plays,  they 
became  popular  in  the  fifteenth  century  when  the  development  of  the 
Easter  play  began  to  decline. 


19 

plays,  although  all  the  important  r61es  are  played  by  indi- 
viduals, the  groups  or  minor  choruses  again  come  into  promi- 
nence, under  the  necessity  of  providing  room  upon  the  stage 
for  all  the  actors.36 

In  the  later  plays  there  is  apparent  a  tendency  to  unite  all 
the  minor  choruses  into  one  large  chorus.  Hints  of  this 
tendency  to  return  to  the  original  chorus  are  found  in  the 
"Redentin  Easter  Play"37  in  a  chorus  sung  by  the  combined 
groups.  In  the  "Frankfurter  Dirigierrolle"38  it  is  quite  usual 
to  find,  in  addition  to  choral  songs  by  groups,  stage  directions 
such  as : 3  9  "  persone  universaliter  cantabunt  versiculum  hunc, ' ' 
"persone  quoque  universaliter  cantabunt"  or  "hie  persone 
cantabunt";  and  in  the  "Tirol-Lichtmesspiel"40  sentences 
such  as:  "tune  omnes  canunt  simul, "  "tune  canunt  omnes" 
or  "simul  omnibus  cantantibus. "  In  the  Alsfeld  Passion 
play41  a  number  of  verses  are  undoubtedly  sung  by  the  united 
choruses;  for,  inasmuch  as  these  verses  are  practically  the 
same  as  those  sung  by  the  "persone  universaliter"  of  the 
"Frankfurter  Dirigierrolle, "  which  served  as  the  model  for  this 
play,  the  simple  term  "chorus"  which  is  always  used  must 
refer  to  the  new  composite  chorus.  The  duties  of  this  new 
chorus  are  even  more  limited  than  were  those  of  the  original 
chorus.  It  takes  no  part  in  the  action;  in  fact  it  does  little 
more  than  sing  Latin  hymns  and  stereotyped  phrases.  In  the 
course  of  development  a  new  character  had  been  added,  the 
"proclamator,"  whose  duty  was  to  speak  the  prologue  and  the 
epilogue,  to  give  the  contents  and  purpose  of  the  play  and  to 
set  forth  the  moral.42  Thus  it  happened  that  the  "procla- 

36  It  is  impossible  to  ascertain  whether  the  chorus  occupied  a  specific 
place  on  the  stage.  Cf .  R.  Heinzel,  Beschreibung  des  geistlichen  Schauspiels, 
Hamburg,  1898,  p.  26. 

3?Cf.  Froning,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  I,  p.  146,  where  the  following  stage  direction 
is  found,  "chorus  cantat:  'Sanctorum  populus'." 

3*  The  text  is  from  Froning,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  II. 

39  Such  stage  directions  occur  fourteen  times  in  this  play. 

4°  Cf.  Pichler,  op.  cit.,  pp.  101  and  no. 

«*  The  text  is  from  Froning,  op,  cit.,  Vol.  III. 

«2Such  a  r61e  is  played  by  St.  Augustine  in  the  "Frankfurt  Passion 
Play.' 


20 

mator"  had  to  a  certain  extent  assumed  some  of  the  duties 
of  the  original  chorus,  and  the  old  liturgical  sentences,  which 
had  dwindled  down  to  stage  directions  and  had  disappeared 
when  the  chorus  was  omitted,  were  not  brought  back.  Those 
liturgical  sentences,  however,  that  had  been  assigned  to  the 
individual  actors  were  again  sung  by  the  chorus ;  thus  showing 
that  there  was  a  feeling  of  relationship  between  this  and  the  old 
chorus. 

No  attempt  to  trace  the  evolution  of  the  chorus  in  the  great 
medieval  pageants  can  be  very  satisfactory. 43  Although  there 
is  apparent  a  gradual  subordination  of  the  lyric  elements  to 
the  dramatic,  the  rdle  actually  played  by  the  chorus  is  con- 
fused and  uncertain.  The  reason  is  obvious.  The  authors 
of  the  religious  dramas  were  priests  of  little  or  no  creative 
genius,  who  wrote  not  for  the  sake  of  producing  great  plays» 
but  that  they  might  bring  clearly  before  the  eyes  of  the  people 
the  significance  of  the  teachings  of  the  church.  Everything 
had  to  be  represented  on  the  stage,  nothing  was  left  to  the 
imagination;  hence  were  evolved  great  dramatic  epics,  the 
performance  of  which  lasted  several  days  and  employed  a 
multitude  of  actors.44  In  writing  these  plays  the  dramatists 
did  not  hesitate  to  utilize  the  plays  of  their  predecessors;45 
either  copying  them  without  change46  or  working  them  over 
and  amplifying  them.  Even  in  the  latter  case  the  original 
form  was  always  apparent.  Familiar  portions  of  the  pieces, 
as  formulae,  hymns  and  ritual  sentences,  were  always  intro- 
duced just  as  they  had  existed  in  the  early  Easter  celebrations. 
Thus  the  choral  songs,  which  always  remained  unaltered  even 
when  the  plays  in  which  they  were  found  were  incorporated  into 
the  longer  plays,  soon  became  typical  and  stereotyped.  For 

43  The  history  of  the  dramatic  services  proves  that  the  chronological 
order  of  the  monuments  does  not  show  their  internal  development.       Cf . 
Creizenach,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  I,  p.  58. 

44  Contrast  the  Greek  method  of  narration  by  the  messenger,  where  the 
whole  plot  was  familiar  to  the  audience  before  presentation. 

4  s  Cf.  L.  Wirth,  Die  Oster-und  Passionsspiele  bis  zum  XVI.  Jahrhun- 
dert,  Halle,  1889,  p.  228. 

46  The  author  of  the  Alsfeld  Passion  play  copied  almost  all  of  the  Trierer 
Marienklage. 


21 

this  reason  one  cannot  really  speak  of  the  evolution  of  the 
chorus  in  the  religious  drama.  The  drama  developed  out  of 
the  chorus,  but  the  chorus  itself  remained  unchanged,  and  even 
in  the  latest  German  plays  is  found  in  its  original  form.  More- 
over, the  development  of  the  plays  depended  to  a  great  extent 
upon  the  individuality  of  the  author.  If  he  was  of  a  religious 
temperament,  as  was  the  writer  of  the  "  Alsfeld  Passion  play, " 
a  great  many  liturgical  sentences  and  hymns  would  be  in- 
troduced; but  if  he  preferred  realism  and  emphasized  such 
scenes  as  the  "  Teuf elspiel "  or  the  merchant-scenes,  which 
had  no  liturgical  foundation,  the  chorus  played  little  or  no 
part.  Furthermore,  any  attempt  at  originality  on  the  part 
of  the  author  was  naturally  a  movement  away  from  the  litur- 
gical drama  and  consequently  a  movement  away  from  the 
chorus.  Thus  it  happens  that  in  some  of  the  later  plays  the 
chorus  is  prominent,  while  in  others  it  does  not  appear  at 
all. 

We  have  seen  from  the  preceding  examination  that  the  reli- 
gious drama  had  its  origin  in  the  old  church  choir,  or  chorus, 
that  the  chorus  soon  gave  way  to  the  smaller  choruses  or 
groups,  and  these  in  turn  to  the  individual  characters.  Even 
while  the  drama  was  still  a  part  of  the  Easter  morning  mass 
the  chorus  had  ceased  to  take  part  in  the  action,  and  its  duties 
were  confined  to  the  singing  of  liturgical  sentences  or  to  dia- 
logue with  the  actors.  When,  under  the  continual  demand  for 
more  realism  and  the  German  language,  the  plays  were  trans- 
ferred from  the  church  to  the  market-place,  the  original  chorus 
was  omitted,  and  the  liturgical  sentences  which  it  had  pre- 
viously sung  were  either  discarded  or  assigned  to  individual 
actors.  The  principal  rdles  were  now  taken  by  distinct  charac- 
ters, the  secondary  groups  still  singing  their  original  songs. 
With  the  growth  of  the  plays  and  the  introduction  of  new 
characters,  the  leading  personages  brought  on  the  stage  with 
them  the  characters  with  whom  they  were  associated  in  the 
Bible,  and  the  groups  again  became  an  important  factor  in 
the  development  of  the  action.  Later  these  groups  were 
united  into  one  composite  chorus,  which,  though  bearing  a 
certain  resemblance  to  the  original  chorus,  must  be  sharply 


22 

distinguished  from  it.  For  certain  functions  of  the  old  chorus 
had  been  assumed  by  the  "  proclamator, "  who  had  been  added 
in  the  course  of  development.  These  functions  were  not  given 
to  the  new  composite  chorus,  but  its  duty  was  confined  to  the 
singing  of  hymns  and  of  such  liturgical  sentences  as  had  been 
retained.  But  in  the  meantime  the  German  elements  had 
been  developed  and  elaborated  to  such  an  extent  that  the  Latin 
sentences  appear  only  in  scattered  instances  throughout  the 
drama.  Consequently  the  composite  chorus  appears  only  as 
an  anomaly  and  never  becomes  a  regular  part  of  the  dramatic 
technic. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  CHORUS  UNDER  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  LATIN  COMEDY 

In  order  that  the  character  of  the  chorus  in  the  drama  of  the 
sixteenth  century  may  be  clearly  understood,  it  is  first  neces- 
sary to  give  a  brief  summary  of  the  radical  changes  that  took 
place  in  the  drama  as  a  whole  during  this  period.  At  the  end 
of  the  fifteenth  century  German  literature  was  at  a  low  ebb. 
It  was  a  period  of  moral,  religious  and  social  disintegration, 
and  the  literature  of  the  period  naturally  reflected  this  condi- 
tion ;  it  was  vulgar,  coarse,  satiric,  in  the  worst  sense  plebeian. 
The  religious  drama  had  developed  into  a  great  unwieldy 
folk- drama;  and  in  the  course  of  its  evolution  so  much  that 
was  rude  and  repulsive  had  been  introduced  that  the  plays 
fell  into  disrepute.  For  some  time  there  had  been  a  tendency 
to  treat  religion  more  seriously,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century  the  old  religious  drama  passed  out  of  exist- 
ence. The  Shrove- tide  plays  which  were  the  only  other  type 
of  drama  in  this  period,  were  crude,  vulgar  farces,  in  doggerel 
verse  and  generally  more  or  less  satiric  in  character.  In  the 
sixteenth  century  the  type  was  greatly  improved  by  Hans 
Sachs,  who  wrote  no  less  than  eighty-five  Shrove- tide  plays. 
His  technic  is  very  simple.  There  is  no  division  into  acts  and 
scenes,  and  the  characters  come  and  go  as  it  suits  his  pleasure. 
The  Shrove-tide  plays  continued  to  flourish  throughout  the 
sixteenth  century,  but  early  in  the  seventeenth  they  too  were 
given  up. 

Such  were  the  conditions  in  Germany  when  a  movement 
arose  which  was  to  produce  a  new  drama  based  on  classic 
models ;  a  drama  which,  under  the  influence  of  the  Reformation, 
was  to  give  the  vernacular  drama  a  stricter  and  more  regular 
form,  and  then  work  hand  in  hand  with  this  popular  drama  in 
furthering  the  teachings  of  Luther.  This  movement  was 

23 


24 

begun  in  Germany  by  the  German  students  who  had  studied 
at  Padua,  Rome  and  Bologna,  and  who  had  brought  back  with 
them  the  enthusiasm  for  Latin  literature  which  was  at  that 
time  widespread  in  Italy.  Under  the  influence  of  Italian 
humanism  the  Roman  comedies  were  everywhere  held  in  the 
highest  esteem.  Not  content  with  studying  and  interpreting 
them,  the  German  humanists  had  them  performed  at  the 
universities,  and  gradually  the  schoolmasters  began  to  write 
original  Latin  dramas  based  on  the  classic  comedies,  for  the 
sole  purpose  of  facilitating  the  study  of  Latin.  These  plays 
were  performed  by  the  students  at  the  schools  and  universities. 
But  the  early  humanists  had  little  conception  of  dramatic 
technic,  for  their  plays  are  very  primitive  in  form. '  They  are 
either  little  more  than  a  succession  of  dialogues2  in  prose,  or 
else  elaborate  court  pageants,  consisting  of  five  loosely  con- 
nected acts  held  together  by  choral  songs,  partly  in  prose,  and 
partly  in  verse;  such  as  were  written  by  Locher  and  Celtis, 
the  most  important  of  the  early  humanists.3 

The  only  noteworthy  exception  is  the  "  Scaenica  progymnas- 
mata  "  or  "  Henno  "  (1497)  of  Reuchlin,  a  peasant-comedy  based 
on  the  well-known  French  farce  "Maitre  Pathelin.  "4  This 
play  was  epoch-making,  not  only  because  it  was  the  first 
successful  attempt  on  the  part  of  a  German  humanist  to  re- 
produce the  spirit  as  well  as  the  form  of  the  old  Roman  come- 
dies, but  also  because  it  was  the  first  instance  of  the  introduc- 


1  Cf.     Creizenach,  op.  tit.,  Vol.  II,  p.  31. 

3  These  plays  might  be  characterized  by  the  title  which  Heinrich  Bebe 
(1501)  gives  his  play:  Comoedia  (vel  potius  dialogus.} 

3  The  court  pageants,  although  they  contain  choral  songs,  do  not  deserve 
a  close  investigation,  for  they  died  out  without  further  development  and 
without  exerting  the  slightest  influence  on  the  German  drama.     They 
were  not  translated  into  German,  but  remained,  as  they  were  intended  to 
be,  a  purely  scholastic  type  of  literature.      "The  Latin  drama  which  was 
to  attain  high  perfection  in  Germany  during  the  sixteenth  century  produced 
only  its  forerunners  in  the  humanistic  period."    (L.  Geiger,  Renaissance  und 
Humanismus  in  Italien  und  Deutschland,  Berlin,  1882,  p.  473). 

4  It  was  impossible  to  obtain  the  text  of  Reuchlin's  comedy.     I  have, 
therefore,  been  compelled  to  follow  the  detailed  analysis  of  the  play  given 
by  Creizenach,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  II,  pp.  43  ff. 


25 

tion  of  the  chorus  into  the  New  Latin  comedy.  The  play  was 
performed  January  31,  1497,  by  the  students  at  Heidelberg, 
where  it  was  received  with  great  enthusiasm.  But  in  spite  of 
his  popularity  Reuchlin  had  no  immediate  followers.  For 
nearly  half  a  century,  the  pageants  and  dialogues  continued  to 
be  the  favorite  form  of  literature  among  the  humanists ;  and  the 
"Henno"  seems  to  have  remained  without  effect  until  1535. 
In  that  year  the  Dutch  humanist  Georgius  Macropedius  pro- 
duced his  "Aluta"  and  his  "Rebelles,  "s  in  the  preface  to 
which  he  says  that  it  was  Reuchlin  who  first  inspired  him 
to  write.6 

At  this  time  there  existed  in  Switzerland  a  bitterly  satiric 
vernacular  drama,  parallel  to  but  entirely  independent  of  the 
scholastic  drama.7  The  authors  of  this  crude  but  powerful 
' '  Tendenzdrama "  were  stern,  serious  men  who  were  unac- 
quainted with  the  new  literary  movement  and  used  the  old 
Shrove-tide  type  as  a  means  of  expressing  their  dissatisfaction 
with  the  church  and  the  clergy.  Written  by  burghers  and 
performed  in  the  market-places  on  Sundays  by  burghers, 
these  plays  were  in  every  sense  folk-dramas.  As  in  the  old 
church  drama,  every  thing  was  represented  and  the  plays 
developed  until  they  sometimes  took  two  days  to  perform 
and  employed  hundreds  of  characters.  Then  came  the 
Reformation,  forcing  into  the  background  by  the  very  vehe- 
mence of  its  advance  all  that  could  not  serve  its  purpose.  The 
religious  strife  became  the  one  overwhelming  event  of  the 
time.  But  with  Luther's  translation  of  the  Bible  and  his 
words8  in  approval  of  the  drama  there  sprang  up  a  widespread 

5  The  humanistic  plays,  written  as  they  were  in  Latin,  could  be  read  with 
equal  facility  by  the  people  of  every  country  and  hence  served  as  models 
in  the  writing  of  later  plays. 

6  "Is  (Reuchlin)  mihi  primus,  ut  verum  fatear,  ansam  scribendi  dedit, 
is  me  primus  excitavit.     Si  praeter  eum  alii  ante  me  scripserint,  nescio; 
hoc  scio,  quod  alios  non  viderim."     (Text  in  the  Lateinische  Litteraturdenk- 
mdler  des  XV.  und  XVI.  Jahrhunderts,  edited  by  J.  Bolte,  Berlin,  1897, 
Vol.  13.) 

?  Cf .  Die  Totenfresser  of  P.  Gengenbach,  and  Der  Ablasskrdmer  of  Nicklaus 
Manuel. 

»  Cf .  Preface  to  the  Book  of  Judith  and  to  the  Book  of  Tobit,— quoted 


26 

enthusiasm  for  dramatic  productions.  From  all  parts  of 
Germany  and  Switzerland  came  the  impulse  to  use  the  stage 
as  a  weapon  of  the  Reformation,  and  to  write  plays  on  subjects 
taken  from  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament.  This  Biblical 
drama  was  not  an  affair  of  the  burgher  class  exclusively,  but, 
in  Germany  especially,  the  clergy  and  the  schoolmasters 
wrote  plays  to  be  performed  by  the  students.  Thus  we  have 
two  types  of  vernacular  drama,  one  written  by  the  unlearned 
and  performed  in  the  market-places ;  the  other  written  by  the 
schoolmasters  and  the  clergy  and  performed  in  the  schools. 
These  schoolmasters  had  studied  the  Roman  comedies  and 
they  followed  classic  models  in  the  composition  of  the  popular 
drama.  The  loose  continuity  of  the  plays  was  divided  into 
what  might  be  called  acts,  although  at  first  the  division  into 
three  or  five  parts  was  purely  artificial  and  did  not  in  the  least 
depend  upon  the  inner  motivation  or  development  of  the 
plot.  At  first  the  plays  were  not  actually  divided  into  acts, 
but  the  parts  were  separated  by  choruses  in  short  strophes, 
which  at  one  time  resemble  Latin  odes  and  at  another  medie- 
val hymns.  In  1527  appeared  "Der  verlorne  Sohn"  by 
Burkard  Waldis,9  the  oldest  Protestant  drama  based  upon  a 
Biblical  story  and  the  first  German  drama  written  under  the 
influence  of  the  classic  tradition.  In  1535  the  "Susanna"  of 
Paul  Rebhun10  was  produced.  Under  the  influence  of  the 
Reformation  the  satiric  drama  of  Switzerland  gave  way  to 
the  Biblical  drama  in  classic  form,  and  in  1532  appeared  the 
"Fiinferlei  Betrachtnisse "  of  Johannes  Kolross11  and  the 
"Susanna"  of  Sixt  Birck.12  These  plays  were  followed  by 
those  of  Boltz  along  parallel  lines. 

Even  the  Latin  drama  was  not  unaffected  by  the  Reforma- 

by  H.  Holstein,  Die  Reformation  im  Spiegelbilde  der  dramatischen  Litteratur 
des  16.  Jahrhunderts,  Halle,  1886,  p.  20.  (In  Schriften  des  Vereins 
fur  Reformationsgeschichte,  Vols.  14-15.) 

9  Edited  by  Froning.  (In  Kurschner's  Deutsche  Nationalliteratur,  Vol.  22.) 

10  Edited  by  J.  Tittmann,  Schauspiele  aus  dem  sechzehntenJahrhundert, 
Leipzig,  1868,  Vol.  II. 

"Text  in  Schweizerische  Schauspiele  des  16.  Jahrhunderts,  edited  by 
J.  Bachtold,  Zurich,  1890,  Vol.  I. 

"Ibid.,  Vol.  II. 


27 

tion.  Under  its  influence  the  dialogues  and  the  pageants  gave 
way  to  a  new  type  of  drama,  more  or  less  in  the  form  of  the 
old  Roman  comedies,  but  treating  subjects  taken  either  from 
contemporary  life  or  from  the  Scriptures.  This  new  tendency 
had  its  origin  in  Holland.  The  first  dramatist  to  employ  a 
Biblical  subject  in  the  style  of  Terence  and  Plautus  was  the 
Dutch  humanist  Gnapheus,  who  in  1529  produced  the  most 
famous  and  the  best  drama  on  the  subject  of  the  Prodigal 
Son,  "Acolastus  sive  de  filio  prodigo."13  In  the  prologue, 
Gnapheus  says  that  he  was  influenced  by  Terence  in  the 
treatment  of  the  parable  and  refers  to  himself  as  the  first 
who  dared  to  use  a  Biblical  subject  in  the  manner  of  the  Roman 
comedy  writers.  The  moral  at  the  end  is  characteristic  of 
the  Latin  school-drama  of  the  Reformation,  for  now  the  drama 
was  intended  not  merely  to  drill  the  students  in  colloquial 
Latin,  but  also  to  serve  as  a  means  of  teaching  and  spreading 
the  ideas  of  the  Reformation.  This  play  attained  great  popu- 
larity in  Holland,  and  was  brought  into  Italy,  England  and 
Germany.  In  Germany  and  Switzerland  it  met  with  great 
success,  owing  to  the  fact  that  in  these  places  the  indigenous 
Biblical  drama  was  just  then  absorbing  the  interest  of  all  the 
people.14  The  "Acolastus"  was  immediately  translated  into 
German  that  it  might  be  understood  by  those  who  did  not 
know  Latin.  The  next  year  Sixt  Birck  rewrote  his  "Susan- 
na"  (!537)  in  Latin,15  and  in  the  prologue  to  this  version 
referred  to  the  "Acolastus"  in  a  way  which  implies  that  it 
was  perfectly  familiar  to  the  audience.  Birck  was  the  first 
German  to  produce  a  Latin  Biblical  drama,  but  his  example 
was  quickly  followed,  and  it  soon  became  customary  for  the 
authors  of  the  vernacular  drama  either  to  translate  the  doggerel 
verse  into  Latin  or  to  write  entirely  new  plays  in  this  language. 
Under  the  influence  of  the  Dutch  school  the  German 

1  s  Edited  by  J.  Bolte  in  Lateinische  Litteraturdenkmaler  des  XV.  und 
XVI.  Jahrhunderts,  Berlin,  1891,  Vol.  I.  This  play  does  not,  however, 
contain  a  chorus. 

14  The  Latin  Biblical  drama  was  ushered  into  Germany  by  the  perform- 
ance of  Acolastus,  in  1536. 

*s  Edited  by  J.  Bolte,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  8. 


28 

humanists  abandoned  the  pageants  and  dialogues  and  turned 
to  the  Latin  Biblical  drama,  which  soon  became  the  only 
type  written  by  them.  Thus  the  two  literary  currents  ran 
side  by  side,  exerting  a  mutual  influence.  The  same  subjects 
were  treated  and  the  same  dramatists  frequently  wrote  both 
in  Latin  and  in  German.  In  spite  of  their  religious  signifi- 
cance the  Biblical  plays  never  lost  their  pedagogic  character, 
and  at  various  times  during  the  year  the  schoolboys  were 
compelled  to  give  a  performance  in  Latin  before  the  school 
authorities,  to  show  their  facility  in  the  language,  and  then 
one  in  German  in  the  town-hall  or  in  the  market-place  before 
the  assembled  populace,  that  "beid  gelert  und  ungelert, 
Burger,  Bawr  und  alle  man  den  profectum  wachs  und  zunem- 
men  der  Schulen  sehen  und  erfaren.  Auch  ein  jeder  deste 
mehr  lust,  die  seinen  zur  Schulen  zu  halten,  haben  muge,  wirt 
solche  Comedien  ferner  offentlich  unter  dem  freien  Himmel 
fur  jederman  aus  unser  schulen  agiret  und  gespilet."16  Al- 
though this  translating  of  German  plays  into  Latin  or  of 
Latin  into  German  naturally  led  to  an  almost  universal 
adoption  of  the  Roman  technic,  the  Biblical  school-drama  of 
the  sixteenth  century  is  a  distinct  type,  for  in  it  is  found  an 
element  which  was  not  derived  from  the  old  Roman  comedies, 
and  that  is  the  introduction  of  the  chorus  between  the  acts. 
Here  an  important  question  arises  as  to  why  the  chorus  was 
used  in  the  German  drama  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The 
first  instance  of  the  chorus  is  in  the  "Henno,  "I?  a  New  Latin 
comedy  by  Reuchlin  (1497).  In  writing  his  play  Reuchlin 
followed  the  dramatic  form  of  Terence.  But  this  does  not, 
however,  explain  the  introduction  of  the  chorus,  for  it  is  not 
used  in  the  comedies  of  Terence  or  Plautus;18  nor  is  there  any 
case  of  the  chorus  either  in  the  Italian  comedy  modeled  upon 

16  Cf.  Baumgarten,  Juditium  Solomonis,  1561,  quoted  by  K.  Goedeke, 
Grundriss  zur  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Dichtung,  Dresden,  Vol.  II,  p.  356. 

1 7  This  play  was  later  worked  over  by  Hans  Sachs,  who  omitted  the 
chorus. 

18  Cf.  Rudens  of  Plautus,  Act  II,  Sc.  I,  for  the  only  case  of  the  chorus  in 
Roman  comedy.      This  chorus  of   fifteen  lines  is  recited  by  a  group  of 
fishermen  who  do  not  appear  again  in  the  play. 


29 

them  or  in  the  French  farce  "Maitre  Pathelin, "  the  source  of 
Reuchlin's  play.  But  although  Reuchlin  nowhere  states  defi- 
nitely the  reason  for  this  innovation,  there  is  a  reference  in  his 
commentary19  that  seems  to  point  clearly  to  Greek  influence; 
for  in  this  passage  he  speaks  of  his  play  as  "  Comoedia  secundae 
aetatis  juxta  Diomedem."  Diomedes20  in  turn  quotes  Sueto- 
nius who  in  his  "De  poetis"  describes  the  chorus  in  Greek 
comedy.  If  we  remember  that  Reuchlin  was  the  most  famous 
Greek  scholar  of  the  humanistic  period21  and  was  familiar 
with  the  antique  drama,  it  is  safe  to  understand  his  words  as 
meaning  that  the  chorus  was  introduced  in  imitation  of  the 
chorus  in  Attic  comedy. 

Reuchlin's  "Henno"  is  divided  into  five  acts  with  a  choral 
song  at  the  end  of  the  first  four.  These  choruses  have  no 
part  in  the  action,  nor  is  any  attempt  made  to  connect  them 
even  in  the  slightest  degree  with  the  plot.  The  play  is  a  Shrove- 
tide farce  of  country  life  in  the  dramatic  form  of  Terence,  but 
the  choruses  are  classic  in  form  and  classic  in  treatment. 
At  the  conclusion  of  the  first  act,  in  which  Elsa  laments  the 
loss  of  the  money  that  has  been  stolen  from  her,  the  chorus 
sings  of  vacillating  fortune  and  the  blessings  of  poverty,  for  the 
poor  can  lose  nothing.  In  the  remaining  odes  it  sings  of  poets 
and  their  divine  gift.  The  choruses  in  the  "Henno"  were 
printed  with  music,  thus  showing  that  they  were  intended  to 
be  sung  by  the  students  at  the  university  and  not  declaimed. 

The  "Henno"  immediately  became  popular.     It  was  per- 

x»  Cf.  Creizenach,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  II,  p.  48. 

J0  Cf .  Ars  Grammatica  (given  in  Keil,  Grammatici  Latini,  I,  p.  491)  where 
Diomedes  quotes  Suetonius,  De  poetis,  p.  1 1,  as  describing  the  chorus  in  an- 
cient Greek  comedy  as  follows:  "Membra  comoediarum  sunt  tria,  diverbia, 
canticum,  chorus.  ...  In  choris  numerus  personarum  definitus  non  est, 
quippe  junctim  omnes  loqui  debent,  quasi  voce  confusa  et  concentu  in 
unam  personam  reformantes.  Latinae  igitur  comoediae  chorum  non 
habent." 

21  The  first  Greek  text  of  Demosthenes  in  Germany  (1522)  was  edited  by 
Reuchlin.  For  a  discussion  of  Reuchlin's  importance  in  Greek  scholarship 
cf.  L.  Geiger,  op.  cit.,  pp.  481  ff.  Cf.  also  L.  Geiger,  Johann  Reuchlin,  sein 
Leben  und  seine  Werke,  Leipzig,  1871,  p.  100,  who  regards  Reuchlin  "als 
den  ersten  Verbreiter  des  Griechischen  in  Deutschland." 


30 

formed  at  the  universities  and  studied  in  connection  with 
Terence  and  Plautus,  and,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  had  at 
first  few  imitators,  it  soon  became  familiar  to  all  the  German 
scholars  of  the  time.22  Then  the  Reformation  drama  arose 
with  the  all-engrossing  desire  on  the  part  of  its  authors  to 
spread  the  Gospel.  Many  of  the  plays  were  written  by  clergy- 
men and  schoolmasters  and  these  men,  who  show  in  their 
technic  the  influence  of  the  Latin  comedies,  saw  in  the  chorus, 
as  treated  by  Reuchlin,  an  excellent  means  of  enforcing  the 
teachings  of  Luther  and  introduced  the  singing  of  popular 
hymns  between  the  acts.  The  underlying  motive  of  all  these 
dramas  was  a  didactic  one,  and  in  a  short  time  the  chorus 
became,  like  the  rest  of  the  drama,  didactic. 

An  entirely  different  reason  for  the  introduction  of  the  chorus 
is  given  by  K.  Borinski, 23  who  thinks  that  the  chorus  was  used  in 
the  sixteenth  century  school-drama  in  imitation  of  the  chorus 
in  the  medieval  church  plays.24  He  quotes  as  his  authority 
Greff,25  who  in  the  preface  to  his  "Lazarus"  (1545)  says: 
"Wir  wissen,  dass  man  vor  Zeiten  in  den  alten  actionibus 
zuweilen  drein  gesungen  hat,  latein  und  deutsch,  welches 
nicht  ungeschickt  gewesen  ist,  sonderlich  das  Volk  ein  wenig 
munterer  und  lustiger  zu  horen. "  But  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  later  sixteenth  century  dramatists  may  have  felt  that 
they  were  following  the  old  German  drama  in  the  use  of  the 
chorus,  it  is  very  unlikely  that  the  originators  of  the  Reforma- 
tion drama,  who  consciously  followed  classical  technic,26  and 

22  In  the  second  quarter  of  the  sixteenth  century  both  German  and 
Dutch  comedy  writers  in  the  classic  style  refer  to  Reuchlin  as  their  model. 

23"Das  Chorlied  als  Zwischenspiel  hatte  das  Schuldrama  des  sech- 
zehnten  Jahrhunderts  schon  von  der  Misterienbuhne  ubernommen." 
(Die  Poetik  der  Renaissance  und  die  Anfange  der  liter arischen  Krilik  in 
Deutschland,  Berlin,  1886,  p.  220.) 

2  *  Cf .  also  H.  Palm,  Beitrdge  zur  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Liter atur  des  X  VI. 
und  XVII.  Jahrhunderts,  Breslau,  1877,  p.  91,  who  thinks  that  P.  Rebhun 
in  introducing  the  chorus  between  the  acts  "nahm  nur  damit  eine, 
wie  es  scheint,  schon  etwas  vergessene  Sitte  wieder  auf."  Palm  also  quotes 
as  his  authority  J.  Greff. 

»s  Cf.  J.  Greff,  preface  to  Lazarus. 

26  Cf.  B.  Waldis,  preface  to  Der  verlorne  Sohn,  who  says  his  play  was 
written  under  classic  influence  .  .  . 


31 

many  of  whom  were  confessed  imitators  of  Reuchlin,27  passed 
by  the  chorus  in  the  New  Latin  comedy  to  imitate  it  in  a 
drama  that  by  1530  was  almost  forgotten.  It  is,  however, 
apparent  from  the  way  in  which  the  chorus  was  used  that 
the  dramatists  did  not  understand  its  rdle  in  the  classic 
drama.  They  probably  never  concerned  themselves  about 
the  traditional  chorus.  With  them  the  chorus  never  took 
part  in  the  action ;  it  was  always  didactic,  always  reflective. 
It  was  almost  always  sung,  sometimes  by  a  group  of  people, 
sometimes  by  one  actor. 

The  first  known  Latin  writer  to  model  his  plays  upon  the 
"Henno"  was  Georgius  Macropedius,  whose  "Rebelles" 
and  "Aluta"  may  be  taken  as  types  of  the  sixteenth  century 
Latin  drama;  "Aluta"  of  that  class  in  which  the  scenes  were 
taken  from  daily  life,  and  "Rebelles"  of  student  life  on  the 
stage.28  The  influence  of  Reuchlin  is  seen  in  Macropedius' 
employment  of  the  chorus  at  the  end  of  the  first  four  acts. 
These  choruses  are,  however,  more  closely  connected  with  the 
rest  of  the  play  than  are  those  of  Reuchlin,  in  that  they  con- 
tain moral  reflections  upon  the  preceding  action  and  the  truths 
which  Macropedius  wishes  to  teach,  but  even  they  in  no  way 
affect  the  development  of  the  plot.  The  choruses  in  the 
"Rebelles"  and  the  "Aluta"  are  merely  musical  interludes; 
and,  as  in  the  "Henno, "  they  were  prefixed  to  the  play  with 

"Dat  unnsser  Stilus  ys  sso  slicht, 

Mit  Terentio  gar  wenich  stymbt, 

Nach  mit  Plauto  overeyn  kumbt, 

De  wyle  ydt  ys  keyn  fabel  gedicht, 

Sender  up  de  rechte  wahrheit  gericht."     (i.     212-216.) 
3?Cf.  G.  Macropedius,  preface  to  Aluta  and  Rebelles.     Cf.  also  supra, 
footnote  6,  p.  25. 

28  These  plays  awakened  interest  in  dramatic  production  and  served  as 
models  for  many  later  German  dramas.  The  Rebelles  was  translated  into 
German  in  1 556  and  in  1 557.  It  influenced  among  other  dramas  of  student 
life  Wickram's  Knabenspiegel  (1554),  Hayneccius'  Almansor  in  Latin 
(1578),  in  German  (1582)  and  Schonaeus'  Dyscoli.  The  Aluta  was  trans- 
lated into  German  three  times  during  the  sixteenth  century.  It  served  as 
the  model  for  the  Vilnius  (1595)  of  Schonaeus.  Cf.  also  Bolte,  op.  cit., 
introduction  to  Rebelles,  p.  xvi. 


32 

their  musical  accompaniments,29  that  every  one  might  be  able 
to  sing  the  choral  odes  according  to  definite  melodies  without 
troubling  to  scan  them.30  All  the  choruses  are  written  in 
Horatian  meter;  in  "Rebelles"  each  chorus  is  an  ode  of  eight 
lines  and  in  "Aluta"  an  ode  of  twelve,  all  in  iambic  dimeter. 
They  were  intended  to  be  sung  by  the  boys  in  the  school. 
According  to  the  "dramatis  personae"  of  "Rebelles"  the 
chorus  is  composed  "ex  Aristippicae  scholae  auditoribus." 
Macropedius  has  two  choruses  in  "Aluta"  after  each  of  the 
first  four  acts.  In  addition  to  a  chorus  of  peasant  women  who 
moralize  upon  the  events  of  the  preceding  act,  there  is  a  chorus 
of  Bacchantes  who  chant  the  songs  of  Bacchus.  It  begins 
each  time  with  the  words  "Jacche  Bacche  ohe,  ohe, "  and  is 
always  the  same. 

Even  before  the  Dutch  school  had  taken  the  "Henno" 
as  its  model  the  German  and  Swiss  schoolmasters  had  come 
under  the  influence  of  Reuchlin's  chorus  and  had  converted 
it  to  their  own  use.  The  first  German  drama  in  which  the 
chorus  appears  is  "Der  verlorne  Sohn"  of  Burkard  Waldis. 
Although  a  Shrove- tide  play  in  Low  German,  it  is  saturated 
with  the  New  Learning.  According  to  Waldis'  own  statement 
it  was  written  under  the  influence  of  the  ancient  drama.  It 
is  divided  into  two  acts,  the  first  treating  of  the  departure  of 
the  Prodigal  and  his  downfall,  and  the  second  of  his  return 
and  restoration  to  his  father's  favor.  The  choral  songs  are 
apparently  hymns  that  were  well-known  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  for  Waldis  gives  only  the  first  line  of  each.  The 
chorus  is  composed  sometimes  of  four  and  sometimes  of  five 
persons.  After  the  prologue  has  been  delivered,  and  before 
the  action  opens,  a  choral  song  is  sung  :3  x  "  Hyr  wordt  gesungen 
de  Lavesangk,  'Nu  bidden  my  den  hilgen  geyst,' — mit  vyff 
stemmen."  At  the  end  of  the  first  act  there  is  an  epilogue 

2 'The  musical  accompaniments  for  the  choruses  were  first  printed  in  the 
edition  of  1553. 

3°"Adjectae  sunt  choris  post  singulos  actus  notulae  quaedam  musicae, 
quo  simplici  tenore  quisque  possit  citra  laborem  versiculos  modulari." 
(Cf.  Bolte,  op.  cit.,  introduction  to  Rebelles,  p.  xxxviii.) 

s'L.  219. 


33 

followed  by  the  chorus,32  "Darnha  wardt  gesungen  de  xiij 
Psalm,  '  Idt  spreckt  der  unwysser  mundt  wol,' — mit  vyff  stem- 
men."  The  second  act  is  concerned  with  the  son's  return. 
While  the  feast  is  being  prepared  the  Te  Deum  is  sung,  and 
during  the  feast  instrumental  music  is  introduced  in  the  form 
of  trumpets,  reed-pipes  and  flutes.  Even  while  the  feast  is 
in  progress  the  opportunity  for  introducing  sacred  songs 
is  not  overlooked.  Just  before  the  end33  "wardt  gesungen  der 
cxxix  Psalm,  'Uth  deper  noeth'  etc.,  met  v.  stemmen";  and 
the  play  closes  with  an  epilogue.  In  addition  to  the  psalms 
sung  during  the  play  six  others  are  printed  at  the  end.  The 
first  three  (2,  3,  24)  were  translated  into  German  by  Andreas 
Knopf er,  a  reformer  of  Riga,  and  the  others  are  the  work  of 
Burkard  Waldis.  Thus  we  see  that  at  every  possible  oppor- 
tunity the  chorus  is  utilized  for  the  singing  of  psalms. 

The  first  Swiss  drama  in  which  the  chorus  appears  is  "Eyn 
schcen  spil  von  funfferley  betrachtnussen  den  menschen  zuor 
Buss  reytzende,  durch  Joannen  Kolrossen  uss  der  heyligen 
geschrifft  gezogen."  It  was  performed  at  Basel  in  1532. 
The  subject  is  not  taken  from  the  Bible,  but  is  an  original 
treatment  of  the  "death  dance"  in  which  a  young  man,  dis- 
regarding his  religious  instruction  for  a  life  of  pleasure,  is 
wounded  by  the  dart  of  Death,  but  is  saved  by  repentance. 
The  play  is  not  actually  divided  into  acts,  but  that  such  a 
division  was  to  be  understood  is  seen  from  the  introduction 
of  four  choruses  in  rimed  sapphic  meter.  The  chorus  is 
composed  of  four  actors.  The  play  opens  and  closes  with  a 
choral  song:  "zum  ersten  singt  man  mit  fier  stimmen  nach- 
gende  tiidtsche  Saphica. "  Here  the  chorus  has  the  r61e 
of  prologue,  urging  all  to  heed  the  teaching  of  the  play. 
This  is  followed  by  the  prologue  proper  in  which  a  herald 
commands  silence  and  bids  the  people  give  their  attention 
to  the  play.  The  choral  songs  are  closely  connected  with  the 
plot,  in  that  they  give  a  deeply  religious  touch  to  the  play  by 
setting  forth  the  moral  and  by  earnestly  and  seriously  urging 
the  people  to  profit  by  it,  for : 

3»L.  1277.  «L.  1934. 

3 


34 

"Sydt  wir  nit  wussen,  wan  der  tod  werd  kummg, 
So  sind  geflissen,  O  jr  lieben  frummen, 
Wachend  all  stunde,  halltend  Gottes  Bunde, 
Dwyl  jr  sind  gsunde!"34 

At  the  same  time  they  serve  to  fill  the  pauses  in  the  action; 
for  while  the  chorus  is  singing  the  youth  who  has  been  granted 

a  new  lease  of  life  in  which  to  repent  goes  away ' '  und  diewyl 

man  singt,  ziicht  er  die  waltlich  kleydung  ab,  unnd  legt  demu- 
tige  kleyder  an."35  After  the  epilogue  the  chorus  calls  to 
mind  the  five  considerations  that  lead  men  to  repentance  and 
the  whole  play  concludes  with  a  prayer  to  God. 

The  work  begun  by  Kolross  was  carried  on  by  Sixt  Birck  in 
' '  Dje  history  von  der  fromen  Gottsforchtigen  frouwen  Su- 
sanna" (1532). 36  In  the  manner  of  Kolross  he  divided  his 
play  into  three  acts  by  means  of  two  choruses  in  rimed  sapphic 
meter.37  In  1537,  under  the  influence  of  the  Latin  Biblical 
drama,  Birck  rewrote  his  "Susanna"  in  Latin,  employing 
instead  of  the  original  three  acts  the  classical  five  acts.  The 
chorus  following  the  first  act  is  the  same  in  both  plays,  and 
the  chorus  at  the  end  of  the  third  act  of  the  Latin  version 
corresponds  to  that  at  the  end  of  the  second  act  of  the 
German.  The  three  remaining  choruses  are  new;  for,  in 
this  play,  even  the  fifth  act  ends  with  a  chorus  followed 
by  the  epilogue.  In  addition  to  the  hymns  after  each  of 
the  acts  the  boys  of  the  school  sing  before  the  play  opens.38 
All  the  choruses  harmonize  to  a  certain  extent  with  the 
religious  treatment  of  the  subject,  inasmuch  as  they  are 
hymns  based  upon  the  psalms;  but  Birck's  treatment  of  the 
first  two  choruses  shows  how  little  connection  there  was  in 

340.328-331.  3  s  L.  320. 

36  This  play  became  the  model  for  the  many  German  and  Latin  Susannas 
composed  during  the  sixteenth  century;  Rebhun  (1535)  was  influenced  by 
the  German  version,  Stockel  (1559)  and  Frischlin  (1578),  by  the  Latin 
version. 

37  Cf .  for  Birck's  use  of  antique  meter  in  the  choruses,  Hopfner,  Reform- 
bestrebungen  auf  dem  Gebiet  der  deutschen  Dichtung  des  16.  u.  77.  Jahrh. 
(Berliner  Progr.,  1866,  p.  9.) 

3'  The  musical  accompaniment  for  this  hymn  is  printed  with  the  text. 


35 

the  minds  of  the  sixteenth  century  dramatists  between  the 
chorus  as  they  used  it  and  that  of  the  classic  drama.  To 
them  the  chorus  meant  nothing  more  than  singing  between 
the  acts,  and  it  was  immaterial  whether  this  was  done  by  a 
group  or  merely  by  one  person.  The  choral  ode  after  the  first 
act,  though  a  poetic  version  of  the  thirtieth  psalm,  is  nothing 
more  than  a  soliloquy  in  sapphic  meter  in  which  Susanna 
expresses  her  faith  in  the  justice  of  God.  In  the  second  chorus 
a  still  further  innovation  is  made  by  the  introduction  of  the 
allegorical  figure  of  "Sapientia"  to  sing  a  selection  from  the 
eighth  chapter  of  Proverbs.39  The  other  choruses  are,  how- 
ever, sung  by  a  group  of  boys. 

In  1535  appeared  the  first  drama  as  an  art  form  (Kunst- 
drama)  in  the  German  language,  the  "Susanna"  of  Paul  Reb- 
hun.  In  this  play  there  is  apparent  for  the  first  time  a  clear 
comprehension  of  the  classical  technic  and  a  conscious  effort 
to  reproduce  the  poetic  form  and  dramatic  structure  of  the 
ancient  drama;  especially  of  the  antique  chorus.  In  the  use 
of  the  chorus  Rebhun  departed  from  the  usual  custom  of  intro- 
ducing at  the  end  of  the  act  familiar  songs  or  hymns,  which 
might,  perhaps,  because  of  their  religious  significance,  harmon- 
ize with  the  action  or  emphasize  the  teaching  of  the  piece.  In- 
stead of  this  he  composed  lyrics  that  were  closely  connected 
with  the  preceding  action,  and  which,  as  in  the  old  Greek 
drama,  might  be  said  to  express  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of 
the  ideal  spectator.  Rebhun  bestowed  great  care  upon  the 
structure  of  his  choruses.  They  were  intended  to  be  sung 
and  were  written  in  strophic  form.  The  first  chorus  consists 
of  four  strophes  of  ten  lines  each.  The  first  two  strophes  tell 
of  the  power  of  Venus  and  her  son,  and  in  the  last  two,  which 
are  sung  as  "  proportio  "  to  the  first  two,  chaste  love  is  extolled 
in  contrast  to  unholy  love : 

' '  solch  lieb  kumt  nicht  von  Venus  her, 

sant  Paul  gepeuts  in  seiner  ler ; 

darumb  wirs  billich  preisen, 

darumb  wirs  billich  preisen."40 

39 The  stage  direction  for  this  choral  song  is  "ex  VIII  Proverbiorum  capite 
sub  persona  Sapientiae."  «•  LI.  306-308. 


36 

In  the  second  chorus  five  four-line  strophes  are  sung,  followed 
by  the  "proportio,  "  which  consists  of  two  ten-line  strophes 
in  entirely  different  meter.  The  third  and  fourth  choruses 
are  in  the  complicated  style  of  the  court  lyric,  each  chorus 
being  composed  of  three  strophes  of  thirteen  lines  each.  As 
in  the  "leich,"41  the  lines  are  of  unequal  length  and  are  written 
in  various  kinds  of  meter.  In  the  third  chorus  an  eight- 
syllable  trochaic  line  is  followed  by  a  single  iambus,  followed 
in  turn  by  a  seven-syllable  iambic  line,  etc. 
"David,  der  prophetisch  man, 

zeigt  an, 

durch  Gottes  geist  geleret: 

wer  sich  fest  auf  Got  erbaut 

und  traut, 

der  wirt  nicht  umbgekeret  ;  etc."42 

Although  the  first  two  choruses  resemble  the  court  song  in 
metrical  form  it  is  likely  that  Rebhun  intended  that  the  '  '  pro- 
portio"  should  correspond  to  the  antistrophe  of  the  Greek 
chorus;  for  a  contrasted  idea  is  always  treated  in  the  "pro- 
portio.  "43  Rebhun's  plays  were  a  decided  advance  upon 
those  of  his  predecessors,  but  the  other  dramatists  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  who  were  not  interested  in  the  form  of  the 
drama,  ignored  the  innovations  of  this  scholar  and  continued 
to  write  their  plays  in  the  old  "  Knittelvers."44 

A  whole  flood  of  Biblical  dramas  in  classical  form  followed 
in  the  wake  of  these  early  plays.  But  in  spite  of  their  number 
there  were  no  great  dramatists,  and  but  few  who  are  worthy 
of  mention.  The  sixteenth  century  dramatists  were  interested 
not  in  the  literary  but  in  the  pedagogical  aspect  of  the  drama. 
There  was,  accordingly,  no  thought  of  originality;  the  same 
subjects  were  treated  again  and  again,  and  in  exactly  the 


.  the  "leich"  as  written  by  Walter  von  der  Vogelweide. 

«*  LI.  307  ff. 

«  Cf.  F.  Bohme,  Geschichte  des  Tanzes  in  Deutschland,  Leipzig,  1886, 
Vol.  I,  pp.  254  ff.,  who  believes  that  these  choruses  were  accompanied  by 
dances. 

44  Cf  .  Hans  Sachs,  the  greatest  dramatist  of  the  period,  who  always  used 
the  Knittelvers. 


37 

same  way.  The  earliest  drama  on  any  subject  was  likely  to 
become  the  model  for  all  later  ones.  Keeping  in  mind  this 
inevitable  similarity,  I  have  endeavored,  so  far  as  it  was 
possible,  to  examine  the  texts  of  those  plays  which  were  most 
popular  at  the  time  they  were  written  and  which  exerted  the 
greatest  influence  on  the  subsequent  dramas  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  and  which  may,  accordingly,  be  taken  as  types. 
A  further  investigation  of  the  Latin  and  German  school-plays 
would  doubtless  bring  to  light  new  details  with  regard  to  the 
chorus,  but  the  general  characteristics  would  remain  the  same. 
What,  then,  are  the  characteristics  of  the  sixteenth  century 
chorus?  It  is  most  sharply  distinguished  from  either  the 
Greek  or  the  Latin  chorus  by  its  didactic  and  religious  nature. 
It  had  no  other  significance  beyond  that  of  a  musical  interlude 
sung  at  the  end  of  an  act,  or  even,  occasionally,  during  the 
act  to  bridge  over  pauses  in  the  action.  The  treatment  of 
Biblical  subjects,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  naturally  led  to  the 
use  of  familiar  church  songs,45  which  because  of  their  religious 
character  expressed  to  a  certain  degree  the  lesson  which  the 
dramatist  wished  to  teach.  But  the  cases  were  few  where,  as 
in  the  "Susanna"  of  Rebhun,  the  choruses  were  composed 
expressly  for  the  drama  and  therefore  closely  connected  with 
it.  A  proof  that  the  dramatists  in  many  cases  did  not  write 
definite  choruses  for  their  plays,  but  used  instead  appropriate 
hymns  or  psalms,  is  that  directions  are  frequently  given  for 
singing  when  the  songs  are  not  printed  with  the  text.  In 
the  "Joseph "of  Gart46  (1540)  we  read  " volgend  maggesungen 
werden  diser  nachgeschribner  Psalm."47  That  the  chorus 
was,  moreover,  felt  to  have  no  vital  connection  with  the  action, 
is  seen  from  the  fact  that  the  dramatists  employed  or  omitted 
it  at  will.  Rebhun  uses  it  in  his  "Susanna,"  but  not  in 
"  Die  Hochzeit  zu  Cana  " ;  Naogeorgus  has  it  in  his  "  Incendia," 
(1541)  but  not  in  his  "Pammachius"  (1538);  W.  Gnapheus 

45  The  chorus  was  usually  accompanied  by  definite  melodies. 

<6  End  of  Act  II.  (Text  in  Elsdssische  Litteraturdenkmaler  aus  dem  XI V- 
X  VII.  Jahrhundert,  edited  by  Ernst  Martin  and  Erich  Schmidt,  Strass- 
burg,  1880,  Vol.  II.) 

*'  Cf.  also  Der  verlorne  Sohn  of  B.  Waldis,  supra,  p.  32. 


38 

does  not  have  it  in  his  "Acolastus"  (1529),  but  does  in  his 
"Hypocrisis"  (1544). 

The  plays  were  generally  supplied  with  a  prologue  and 
an  epilogue,  and  the  choruses  were  introduced  at  the  end 
of  the  first  four  acts.  Sometimes  the  play  ended  with  a 
chorus,  either  before  or  after  the  epilogue;  as  in  the  "Re- 
belles"  of  Macropedius  or  the  "Incendia"  of  Naogeorgus. 
Zeigler  in  his  "Pedonothia"  (1543)  has  a  chorus  after  all 
the  acts  except  the  fourth.  Choral  songs  are  also  occasion- 
ally sung  before  the  opening  of  the  action.  Such  a  use  of 
the  chorus  is  found  in  Kolross'  "Fiinferlei  Betrachtnisse  " ; 
in  Birck's  "Susanna"  (1537);  in  Kruger's  "Action  von  dem 
Anfang  und  Ende  der  Welt"  (1566).  In  some  few  cases  the 
choral  song  appears  even  in  the  middle  of  the  act.  In  the 
"Action  von  dem  Anfang  und  Ende  der  Welt"  the  chorus 
of  angels  sings  both  in  the  middle  and  at  the  end  of  the  first 
scene  of  the  first  act. 

The  choral  songs  were  of  course  sung  by  the  schoolboys, 
but  little  can  be  said  about  the  size  of  the  chorus,  There 
seems  to  have  been  no  definite  number.  In  the  "Susanna" 
of  Birck  (1537)  the  first  two  choruses  are  sung  by  one  actor;  in 
Kruger's  "Action  von  dem  Anfang  und  Ende  der  Welt" 
(1566)  we  read  with  regard  to  the  chorus  of  angels,  "angeli, 
und  so  vil  man  irer  sonsten  immer  haben  kan.  "48  In  most 
cases,  however,  the  list  of  "dramatis  personae"  does  not 
include  the  chorus. 

In  a  few  instances  the  audience  took  part  in  the  play.  In 
"Saul"  (1606)  of  Wolfhart  Spangenberg,  Saul  praises  David 
and  concludes  with  the  words: 49 

"  Dass  dein  Lob  immer  grosser  sey 
Gott  woll  dich  lieben  Hertziglich : 

All  Menschen  mussen  preysen  dich : 
Auch  unser  Volck  musse  vollbringen 
.Dein  Lob  mit  Reygen  und  mit  singen," 

48  Cf.  "dramatis  personae  "of  the  play.  (Text  in  Schauspiele  aus  dem 
sechzehnten  Jahrhundert,  edited  by  J.  Tittmann,  Leipzig,  1868,  Vol.  II.) 

«»  End  of  Act  I.  (Text  in  Elsassische  Litter aturdenkmdler  aus  dem  XIV- 
XVII.  Jahrhundert,  vol.  IV.) 


39 

after  which  follows  the  chorus,  sung  apparently  by  "das 
Volk.  "  In  the  "Susanna"  (1537)  of  Birck,50  the  eighth  psalm 
is  sung  by  the  "populus. "  Thus  we  see  that  the  dramatists 
of  this  period  took  the  chorus  as  they  understood  it  and 
modernized  it  by  adapting  it  to  their  own  needs. 

The  meter  used  in  the  choral  songs  varies.  The  Latin 
choruses  were  originally  odes  in  Horatian  meter.  They  were 
generally  written  in  iambic  or  trochaic  dimeter,  asclepiad, 
sapphic,  gly conic  or  alcaic  meter;  and  a  desire  to  write  chor- 
uses according  to  a  classic  model  led,  in  some  cases,  to  the 
employment  of  these  meters  for  the  German  plays.  Both 
Kolross  in  his  "Fiinferlei  Betrachtnisse "  and  Birck  in  his 
"Susanna"  (1532)  used  "gereimte  teutsche  Sapphica. " 
Rebhun  is,  I  believe,  the  only  sixteenth  century  dramatist 
who  attempted  to  compose,  in  the  German  language,  choruses 
according  to  the  Greek  model  in  strophe  and  antistrophe. 
But  in  general  the  choral  songs  of  the  German  drama  were  in 
the  crude  doggerel  meter  of  the  religious  songs  of  the  sixteenth 
century,51  many,  as  we  have  seen,  being  hymns  taken  over 
directly  from  the  church  service.52 

The  great  work  of  the  Reformation  was  finished  by  1555. 
But  although  there  was  a  tendency  to  turn  from  religious  to 
secular  subjects  and  to  tragic  treatment,  the  Senecan  drama 
which  at  that  time  was  all-important  in  Italy,  France  and 
England,  seems  to  have  had  no  imitators  in  Germany.  The 
tragedies  that  were  taken  from  Virgil,  Livy  and  Ovid  were 
based  upon  the  Roman  comedies,53  and  the  favorite  dramatic 
form  continued  to  be  that  of  the  half-Biblical,  half-Terentian 
school-drama54  But  even  in  the  dramas  of  this  period  there 
were  present  tendencies  which  were  to  force  the  chorus  into 

s°  Act  V,  sc.  4. 

s1  Cf.  Luther's  Einfeste  Burg,  based  on  the  forty-sixth  psalm. 

s*  Cf.  supra,  p.  33  B.  Waldis,  to  whose  play  were  suffixed  six  psalms. 

s^Nicodemus  Frischlin,  the  foremost  dramatist  of  the  latter  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century  in  writing  his  Dido  and  Venus  aimed  to  create  a 
"Terentius  Christianus."  Cf.  further  Holstein,  op.  cit.,  p.  63. 

s«Cf.  Creizenach,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  II,  p.  425;  cf.,  however,  C.  H.  Herford 
Studies  in  the  Literary  Relations  of  England  and  Germany  in  the  Sixteenth 
Century,  Cambridge,  1886,  pp.  98-99. 


40 

the  background.  The  popular  drama  that  was  performed  in 
the  market-places  did  not  have  a  regular  chorus,  but  scattered 
throughout  the  plays  of  Jacob  Ruff,  Hans  Rudolf  Manuel, 
Jakob  Funcklin,  and  many  others  are  references  such  as 
1 '  Musica, "  "  Trummeten, "  "  Pfif en, "  "  Pausando. ' '  This  in- 
strumental music,  which  at  first  served  to  bridge  over  pauses 
in  the  plot,  was  later  used  to  signify  the  division  of  the  play 
into  acts,  and  when  the  plays  were  actually  so  written  it 
supplied  entertainment  between  the  acts.  But  it  was  not 
long  before  instrumental  music,  the  use  of  which  had  origi- 
nated with  the  Swiss  dramatists  and  had  spread  to  the  German 
popular  drama  was  adopted  by  the  authors  of  the  German 
school-drama  and  was  found  side  by  side  with  the  choral 
songs. ss  In  the  "Joseph"  (1540)  of  Gart56  are  found  the 
following  directions:  "Hie  mag  gesungen,  gepfiffen  oder 
georglet  werden  diss  nachvolgende  oder  anders. "  Susanna  in 
Birck's  "Susanna"  (1532)  says  just  before  she  sings  the  first 
choral  ode:57 

"wie  ich  yetzunder  singen  wil 
von  hertzen  uff  dem  orgel  spil. " 

In  Kruger's  "Action  von  dem  Anfang  und  Ende  der  Welt," 
after  Gabriel  announces  the  birth  of  Christ  to  the  shepherds, 
the  chorus  of  angels  returns  to  heaven  "singende:  all  er  und 
lob  sol  Gottes  sein  etc.,"58  and  when  Christ  ascends  into 
heaven  "die  engel  mit  posaunen  und  trommeten,  oder  ander 
seitenspiel  in  empfangen  sollen."59  In  the  second  half  of  the 
century,  however,  when  the  didactic  purpose  of  the  drama 
became  less  pronounced,  and  the  urgent  need  of  spreading 
the  Gospel  was  no  longer  felt,  there  was  a  tendency  to  give  up 
the  choral  song  entirely  for  instrumental  music  which  became 
more  and  more  the  favorite  form  of  interlude. 

In  1587  appeared  English  players  who  controlled  the  German 

ss  There  are,  of  course,  cases  in  the  early  Biblical  drama,  as  for  example, 
Der  verlorne  Sohn  of  B.  Waldis  where  instrumental  music  was  used  in 
connection  with  the  choral  song,  but  the  practice  did  not  become  general 
until  later  in  the  century.  56  End  of  Act  I.  5?  L.  485. 

5«  Act  II,  sc.  i.  s»  End  of  Act  III. 


41 

stage  until  the  Thirty  Years'  War.60  In  spite  of  the  fact  that 
choral  songs  are  found  in  the  plays  of  Lyly,  Peele,  Marlowe 
and  the  other  Elizabethan  dramatists,61  these  plays  as  per- 
formed in  Germany  by  the  "English  comedians"  do  not 
contain  a  chorus.62  The  plays  were  brought  into  Germany  by 
second-rate  actors  who  were  not  concerned  with  faithfully 
producing  them,  for  there  is  only  the  remotest  connection 
between  the  original  English  dramas  and  those  played  in 
Germany.  What  they  aimed  to  do  was  to  emphasize  and 
bring  into  prominence  those  things  which  appealed  to  popular 
taste.  At  first  the  plays  were  performed  in  English  and  be- 
tween the  acts  a  clown  was  introduced  who  spoke  in  German, 
but  whose  sayings  were  seldom  more  than  coarse  horse-play 
and  whose  acting  consisted  of  acrobatic  tricks.  Instrumental 
music  was  always  a  prominent  feature  of  the  English  plays, 
especially  between  the  acts.  As  time  passed  the  interlude 
was  developed  until  it  completely  overshadowed  the  rest  of 
the  play,  and  the  whole  effect  was  that  of  noise  and  confusion 
caused  by  horns,  trumpets,  drums,  fireworks,  dancing  and  the 
tricks  of  the  clown ;  all  of  which  formed  so  essential  a  part  of 
the  English  productions.  With  the  appearance  of  the  "Eng- 
lish comedians,"  the  chorus  practically  disappears.  In  the 
enthusiasm  aroused  by  the  foreign  plays  and  the  professional 
actors,  the  old  Biblical  drama  and  the  performances  of  the 
mechanics  and  the  schoolboys  were  forgotten.  Nor  is  there 
any  trace  of  the  chorus  in  the  German  plays  that  were  written 
under  English  influence,  but  instrumental  music  is  the  usual 
form  of  entertainment  between  the  acts.63 

Before  concluding  this  chapter,  it  seems  advisable  to  review 
briefly  the  development  of  the  chorus  in  the  century  we  have 
just  been  studying.  But  it  is  first  necessary  to  emphasize  the 
fact  that  there  is  no  connection  between  the  choral  songs  of 

60 "The  earliest  record  of  this  English  invasion  dates  from  1587."  Cf. 
C.  Thomas,  A  History  of  German  Literature,  New  York,  1909,  p.  164. 

6lCf.  supra,  pp.  8-9. 

6a  Cf.  Creizenach,  Die  Schauspiele  der  englischen  Komodianten.  (In  Vol. 
23  of  Kurschner's  Deutsche  Nationalliteratur,  Einleitung,  p.  xcii. 

6  3  Cf .  Jacob  Ayrer  and  Duke  Heinrich  Julius  von  Braunschweig  in  whose 
dramas  instrumental  music  is  introduced  between  the  acts. 


42 

the  sixteenth  century  and  those  sung  by  the  groups  of  minor 
characters  centered  about  the  leading  characters  of  the  old 
church  plays.  For  even  before  the  era  of  the  Biblical  drama, 
these  old  plays  were  regarded  with  disfavor  and  began  to  pass 
out  of  existence.  The  chorus  is  found  for  the  first  time  in  the 
sixteenth  century  drama  in  the  "Henno"  of  Reuchlin.  This 
chorus  which,  according  to  the  indirect  statement  of  the 
author,  was  introduced  under  the  influence  of  the  chorus  in 
Attic  comedy,  was  taken  over  by  the  writers  of  the  Reforma- 
tion drama  and  was  used  as  a  means  of  enforcing  the  teachings 
of  the  play.  The  tendency  to  use  popular  hymns  between  the 
acts,  which  was  first  apparent  in  the  plays  of  the  German 
schoolmasters  and  clergy,  became  more  pronounced  when  in 
1636  the  Latin  Biblical  drama  was  introduced  into  Germany  by 
the  performance  of  "Acolastus. "  The  play  was  immediately 
translated  and  affected  both  the  Latin  and  the  vernacular 
drama.  Under  its  influence  the  dialogues  and  pageants  of 
the  humanists  gave  way  to  the  Biblical  drama  in  Latin.  Men 
who  had  previously  written  in  German  began  to  translate 
their  plays  or  to  compose  anew  in  Latin.  The  use  of  the  Latin 
language  led  to  a  more  or  less  general  adoption  of  the  classical 
technic,  and  consequently  to  the  use  of  the  choral  songs  as 
a  recognized  part  of  this  technic.  By  the  middle  of  the 
century  the  work  of  the  Reformation  was  finished,  religious 
subjects  gave  way  to  secular,  but  the  Graeco-Roman  technic 
of  Reuchlin,  popularized  by  the  Latin  and  the  German  Bibli- 
cal drama  continued  to  be  used.  But  a  counter-influence  was 
at  work.  Even  before  the  advent  of  the  English  players  the 
increasing  popularity  of  instrumental  music,  as  a  means  of 
entertainment  between  the  acts,  tended  toward  the  gradual 
elimination  of  the  choral  song.  At  first  instrumental  music 
was  introduced  in  addition  to  the  chorus,  but  later  in  the 
century  there  was  a  tendency  to  omit  the  choral  ode  en- 
tirely. Consequently  the  appearance  of  the  "English  come- 
dians," who  relied  for  their  popularity  upon  the  use  of 
instrumental  music,  dances  and  acrobatic  feats  between  the 
acts  of  their  plays,  hastened  rather  than  caused  the  abolition 
of  the  choral  song. 


CHAPTER  IV 
FROM  GRYPHIUS  TO  GOTTSCHED 

During  the  Thirty  Years'  War  practically  all  connection 
with  the  literature  of  the  sixteenth  century  was  severed.  With 
the  exception  of  the  English  plays  which  were  occasionally 
performed  dramatic  productions  were  entirely  forgotten.1 
Accordingly  when,  at  the  end  of  the  war,  the  dramatists  again 
turned  to  play-writing,  they  were  compelled  to  follow  foreign 
models.  In  the  second  half  of  the  seventeenth  century 
there  were  three  types  of  drama:2  the  popular  drama,  showing 
in  the  antics  of  the  clown  and  in  the  use  of  instrumental  music 
between  and  during  the  acts  the  influence  of  the  English 
players;  the  opera  which  was  imported  from  Italy  and  was 
received  with  favor  by  the  nobility;  and  the  so-called  "Kunst- 
drama, "  modeled  upon  the  Senecan  technic,  which  was 
brought  into  Germany  by  the  imitation  of  the  Dutch  and  to  a 
lesser  degree  of  the  French  drama.3 

Andreas  Gryphius,  the  greatest  German  dramatist  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  was  the  first  to  produce  tragedies  in 
imitation  of  Renaissance  models.  All  his  plays  are  tragedies 
of  martyrdom;  dramas  of  passive  suffering  in  the  spirit  of 
Seneca.  With  the  exception  of  "Cardenio  und  Celinde,  "4 

1  "The  few  weak  attempts  at  Biblical  drama  during  this  period  have  no 
significance."  Goedeke,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  II,  p.  189. 

2Cf.  further,  A.  Koberstein,  Grundriss  der  Geschichte  der  deutschen 
Nationattiteratur,  Leipzig,  1872,  Vol.  II,  p.  234. 

3  By  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  Seneca  had  exerted  his  great- 
est influence  in  France,  England  and  Holland;  but  the  Thirty  Years'  War 
had  so  far  retarded  the  development  of  German  literature  that  in  1648, 
with  the  exception  of  the  Jesuit  drama,  there  had  been  practically  no 
imitation  of  the  Roman  tragedies  in  Germany. 

4  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this  play  was  the  indirect  cause  of  Graf 
von  Platen's  attack  upon  Immermann  in  Der  romantische  Oedipus,  a  sa- 
tiric comedy  with  a  chorus  in  imitation  of  the  chorus  in  Old  Greek  Comedy. 
Cf .  infra,  p.  80. 

43 


44 

the  heroes  are  always  innocent  victims  "rejoicing  to  suffer 
death  for  virtue  and  religion."  Every  drama  has  a  didactic 
purpose;  to  teach  the  vanity  of  human  affairs,  "die  vergang- 
ligkeit  menschlicher  sachen  in  gegenwertigem  und  etlich  fol- 
gen  den  trauerspielen  vorzust  ellen . " s 

Gryphius  was  not  an  original  genius.  He  was  a  pioneer  in 
the  dramatic  field  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  in  his 
choruses  especially  he  seems  to  have  followed  first  one  model 
and  then  another  without  adhering  consistently  to  any  one 
form  of  treatment.  He  was  acquainted  with  the  Dutch, 
French,6  Italian  and  Jesuit7  dramas,  but  the  influence  of  the 
Dutch  and  the  Jesuit  is  most  apparent  in  his  plays.8  The 
influence  of  the  Jesuit  drama  is  especially  discernible  in  his 
fondness  for  the  bizarre  or  the  unusual  both  in  subject  and  in 
character.9  The  influence  of  Vondel  is  traceable  in  every 
play.10 

5  Cf.  preface  to  Leo  Armenius.     Andreas  Gryphius,  Trauerspiele,  edited 
by  H.  Palm,  Tubingen,  1882.     This  edition  was  used  throughout. 

6  The  French  drama  was  more  strongly  influenced  by  Seneca  than  was 
the  Dutch.     Gryphius  follows  the  Dutch  whenever  it  departs  from  the 
French  and  Seneca.    Cf .  R.  Kollewijn,  Uber  den  Einfluss  des  holldndischen 
Dramas  auf  Andreas  Gryphius,  Heilbronn,  S.  A.,  p.  71. 

» Although  the  chorus  was  an  essential  part  of  the  technic  of  the  Jesuit 
drama,  I  have  not  attempted  to  discuss  it,  because  the  Jesuit  drama  was 
always  written  in  Latin  until  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  and  was 
always  confined  to  the  schools.  For  a  discussion  of  the  chorus  in  the 
Jesuit  drama  cf.  Holstein,  op.  cit.,  pp.  271  ff. ;  also  P.  Bahlmann,  Das  Drama 
der  Jesuiten.  (In  Euphorion,  1895,  Vol.  II,  pp.  271  ff.) 

•The  classical  drama  of  the  ancients  had  almost  no  direct  influence. 
Cf.  Goedeke,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  V,  p.  189.  But  the  indirect  influence  of  the 
Greek  and  the  Latin  drama  was  strong,  i.  e.,  the  influence  of  Seneca  through 
the  dramas  of  Hooft  and  of  Sophocles  through  the  dramas  of  Vondel. 

'  For  the  influence  of  the  Jesuit  drama  upon  Gryphius  cf .  Willi  Hairing, 
Andreas  Gryphius  und  das  Drama  der  Jesuiten,  Halle,  1907.  (dissertation). 

10  For  example,  the  "Reyhen  der  Hofe-Junckern  Papiniani"  at  the  end 
of  Act  I  of  Papinianus  is  very  similar  to  the  "  Rey  van  Eubeers  "  in  Act  III 
of  the  Palamedes  of  Vondel.  Also,  the  fourth  choral  song  of  Leo  Armenius 
corresponds  to  the  second  and  third  of  Vondel's  Gysbreght  van  AemsteL 
In  each  case  there  is  a  three-fold  chorus.  Vondel's  influence  upon  the 
metrical  form  of  Gryphius'  choruses  will  be  discussed  later.  Cf .  Kollewijn, 
op.  cit.,  pp.  62  ff.,  for  a  detailed  comparison  of  Vondel  and  Gryphius. 


45 

It  was  undoubtedly  this  familiarity  with  so  many  types  of 
the  Renaissance  drama,  coupled  with  a  misunderstanding  of 
the  essential  nature  of  the  chorus  and  a  total  disregard  of 
stage  requirements,  that  gave  to  most  of  the  choruses  of  Gry- 
phius  their  incongruous  and  highly  artificial  character.  Not 
quite  certain  in  his  own  mind  as  to  the  proper  treatment  of 
the  chorus,  he  lets  his  imagination  run  riot  in  this  part  of  the 
play.11  Strange  experiments  in  characters,  form  and  subject 
show  how  far  he  has  departed  from  truth  and  reality.  With 
few  exceptions  the  choruses  are  utterly  devoid  of  life  and  make 
the  plays  dramatically  ineffective. 

Gryphius  has  a  chorus  after  each  of  the  first  four  acts; 
only  in  "Leo  Armenius"  III.  i,  "Papinianus"  II  and  V 
and  "Carolus  Stuardus"  V,  does  the  chorus  appear  in  the 
middle  of  the  act.  The  stage-directions  show  that,  with  these 
exceptions,  the  chorus  is  not  on  the  stage  during  the  course  of 
the  action  but  appears  at  the  conclusion  of  the  act.  In 
"Carolus  Stuardus"  I  the  chorus  of  murdered  English 
kings  leaves  the  stage  with  the  words:  "Weicht  geister! 
Britten  ist  kein  ort  vor  stille  seelen!"12  In  "  Papinianus"  IV 
the  furies  are  supposed  to  vanish  before  the  eyes  of  the  audi- 
ence.13 In  "Papinianus"  II,  Justice  descends  from  the 
clouds,  calls  the  furies  from  the  lower  world  and,  at  the  con- 
clusion of  the  choral  song,  again  mounts  to  heaven.  Gry- 
phius generally  has,  moreover,  a  different  chorus  for  each  act, 
thus  making  it  impossible  for  the  chorus  to  remain  on  the 
stage  during  the  progress  of  the  play.  The  song  of  joy  sung  by 
the  attendants  of  Catharina  of  Georgia  after  the  decree  of 
death  is  pronounced  by  Chach  Abas  would  lead  one  to  imagine 
that  the  chorus  was  not  even  supposed  to  be  aware  of  the 
course  of  the  action. 

As  might  be  expected,  the  choruses  have  little  or  no  vital 
connection  with  the  rest  of  the  play.  In  the  few  cases  in  which 
the  chorus  does  appear  during  the  course  of  the  action,  its  r61e 


11  Cf.  Carolus  Stuardus,  Acts  I  and  II;  also  Cardenio  und  Celinde,  Act  IV. 

12  L.  351. 

x*  "Die  geister  verschwinden,"  stage  direction  at  the  end  of  Act  IV. 


46 

is  that  of  a  sympathetic  witness  rather  than  of  an  actor.14 
Even  when  the  choral  song  consists  of  observations  and  re- 
flections of  a  moral  tendency  suggested  more  or  less  directly 
by  the  content  of  the  preceding  act,  the  tragic  effect  is 
often  spoiled  and  an  artificial  tone  is  given  to  the  whole 
because  these  reflections  are  sung  by  mythological  personages 
who  bear  no  relation  to  the  words  they  sing.  But  Gryphius 
frequently  goes  even  further,  and  the  choruses  are  interludes 
pure  and  simple.  They  are  given  by  allegorical  figures  and 
are  so  little  connected  with  the  action  that  they  might  be 
transferred  from  one  play  to  another  without  any  loss  of 
appropriateness:  for  example,  "Cardenio  und  Celinde"  III, 
where  a  scene  is  enacted  by  Time,  Man  and  the  Four  Seasons 
in  the  form  of  the  four  ages  of  man;  or  "Catharina  von 
Georgien"  IV,  where,  after  Virtue  has  urged  mortals  to  be 
constant,  a  dialogue  takes  place  between  Death  and  Love. 

The  characters  found  in  the  choruses  are  rarely  such  as 
belong  inherently  to  the  play.15  In  addition  to  living  person- 
ages such  as  maidens,  priests  and  courtiers,  Gryphius  intro- 
duced spirits,  mythological  and  allegorical  characters.  Dead 
kings,  furies,  sirens,  religion,  heresy,  virtue,  love,  death,  justice, 
time,  all  have  a  r61e  in  his  choruses.  Spirits  and  allegorical 
figures,  although  not  found  in  the  choruses  of  the  classic  trage- 
dy,16 were  regarded  as  an  essential  part  of  the  technic  of  the 
Renaissance  drama  and  were  extensively  used  in  the  Jesuit 
drama.17  They  are  also  found  in  a  more  limited  number  in 
the  plays  of  Hooft,  and  Gryphius'  adoption  of  them  is  prob- 
ably due  to  these  influences.  Another  Renaissance  charac- 

r«  Papinianus  II  and  V;  also  Carolus  Stuardus  V. 

«s  There  is  no  regularity  with  regard  to  the  size  of  the  chorus,  but  the 
number  of  characters  varies  in  the  different  choruses. 

16  Cf.,  however,  the  chorus  in  Old  Greek  Comedy  which  was  often  com- 
posed of  mythological  beings,  as  furies,  sphinxes,  sirens;  also  of  fanciful 
personifications,  as  towns,  clouds,  seasons.  Were  the  Jesuits  influenced 
by  Old  Greek  Comedy? 

*»Cf.  "Chor  der  streitenden  kirchen"  and  "Reyhen  der  himmlischen" 
(including,  "Die  seligkeit,"  "die  zwei  Engel")  which  are  found  in  Die 
heilige  Felicitas  of  the  French  Jesuit,  Nicolaus  Caussin,  translated  by 
Gryphius  (1634). 


47 

teristic  is  the  use  of  the  double  chorus.  This  is  found  only  two 
or  three  times  in  Greek  tragedy18  and  only  twice  in  Seneca,19 
but  it  is  not  uncommon  in  the  Renaissance  drama. 20  Gryphius 
makes  frequent  use  of  it,  as,  for  example,  the  chorus  of  priests 
and  maidens  in  "Leo  Armenius"  IV,  or  of  the  attendants  of 
Plautia  and  of  Papinianus  in  "Papinianus."  This  is  dis- 
cussed more  fully  later. 

Gryphius  calls  his  choruses  "Reyhen"  in  imitation  of  Von- 
del. 2  *  They  are  either  composed 2  2  in  the  three-fold  division  of 
"Satz,"  "Gegensatz"  and  "Zusatz,"  taken  by  Vondel  from 
Sophocles, 23  or  in  the  strophic  form  of  Seneca. 24  The  "  Satz ' ' 
was  probably  intended  to  be  sung  by  one  half  of  the  chorus, 
the  " Gegensatz"  by  the  other,  and  the  "Zusatz"  by  the 
whole  chorus ;  for  Gryphius  sometimes  designates  this  form  by 
"chor, "  "gegenchor"  and  "chor  und  gegenchor  zusammen." 
Gryphius  divides  his  chorus  in  this  way  in  "Leo  Arme- 
nius" I  and  III  and  in  "Catharina  von  Georgien"  I  and 
II.  The  metrical  form  of  the  "Gegensatz"  always  corre- 
sponds to  that  of  the  "Satz,"  while  that  of  the  "Zusatz" 
is  different.  Gryphius  still  further  imitates  Vondel  by  occa- 
sionally repeating  the  "Satz,"  "Gegensatz"  and  "Zusatz";  as 
in  "Leo  Armenius"  IV,  in  "Carolus  Stuardus"  II,  and 
"Papinianus"  III.  In  "Carolus  Stuardus"  I,  it  is  re- 
peated twice.  Gryphius  employs  a  variety  of  meter  in  the 
choruses  in  imitation  of  Seneca,  but  "most  frequent  are  the 

18  Cf.  Euripides,  Hippolytus ;  Aeschylus,  Seven  against  Thebes. 

x»  Cf.  Agamemnon  and  Hercules  Oetaeus. 

20Cf.  for  French  Renaissance  drama,  Jodelle,  Didon,  in  which  there 
is  a  chorus  of  the  attendants  of  Dido  and  a  chorus  of  the  attendants  of 
Aeneas.  Also,  Gamier,  Porcie,  in  which  there  are  three  choruses,  and 
Antigone.  For  Dutch  Renaissance  drama,  cf.  Vondel,  Palamedes,  in 
which  there  is  a  Rey  van  Eubeers  and  a  Rey  van  Ithakoiser. 

21  In  1639  Vondel  in  his  de  Maagden  for  the  first  time  divided  his  chorus 
into  "Zang,"  "Tegenzang"  and  "Toezang."     Further,  cf.  Kollewijn,  op. 
cit.,  p.  64. 

22  For  a  detailed  discussion  of  the  meter  in  the  choruses  of  Gryphius, 
cf.  Kollewijn,  op.  cit.,  pp.  74-76. 

2 3  This  division  is  not  found  in  the  French  or  the  Senecan  drama. 

2  4  It  is  not  unusual  to  find  the  Greek  technic  of  Vondel  and  the  Latin 
technic  of  Hooft  employed  in  the  same  drama. 


48 

four-,  six-  or  eight-line  strophes  in  iambic  or  trochaic  meter: 
as  in  "Leo  Armenius"  II,  "Catharina  von  Georgien"  III, 
"CardenioandCelinde"  I,  II,  and  IV,  "Carolus  Stuardus"  III 
and  "  Papinianus"  I.  The  only  instance  of  the  use  of  dactylic 
meter  is  in  "Papinianus"  IV.25  Gryphius  seldom  employs 
Alexandrine  meter  for  his  choruses.  In  "Carolus  Stuardus" 
IV,  where  the  chorus  is  spoken  by  Religion  and  Heresy,  Religion 
speaks  in  Alexandrine  meter  and  Heresy  in  five  foot  iambic 
meter.  The  women  and  attendants  in  "Papinianus"  V  also 
speak  in  Alexandrine  meter.  That  some  if  not  all  of  the 
choruses  were  intended  to  be  sung  to  the  accompaniment  of 
orchestral  music  is  seen  from  the  fact  that  in  "Leo  Armen- 
ius" III,  the  stage-direction  is  "Violen.  Unter  wahrendem 
seitenspiel  und  gesang  entschlafft  Leo  auf  dem  stuhle  sitzend." 
The  following  plays  illustrate  most  clearly  the  character- 
istics of  the  choruses  in  the  dramas  of  Gryphius:  "Leo 
Armenius,"  where  the  sanest  treatment  of  the  chorus  is  found, 
for  no  allegorical  figures  are  introduced;  "  Papinianus, "  where 
the  treatment  resembles  that  of  the  Sophoclean  rather  than  of 
the  Senecan  chorus ;  and  "  Carolus  Stuardus,"  where  the  chorus 
has  reached  the  height  of  artificiality  and  loses  all  excuse  for 
existence.  The  r61e  played  by  the  chorus  in  "Leo  Armenius " 
is  purely  lyrical,  for  it  does  nothing  to  further  the  development 
of  the  plot.  The  first  three  choruses,  which  are  sung  by  a 
group  of  courtiers,  are  reflective  and  didactic,  two  important 
characteristics  of  the  Renaissance  drama.  After  the  fourth 
act  there  is  a  double  chorus  of  priests  and  virgins.  The  words 
of  the  chorus  at  the  end  of  the  first  act  are  those  of  the  ideal 
spectator,  who,  having  observed  the  preceding  events,  feels 
that  the  disaster  of  Balbus  is  due  to  his  recklessness  in  express- 
ing his  views  to  the  emperor's  councilor.  The  "Satz"  extols 
"speech"  by  means  of  which  all  the  marvels  of  the  earth  have 
been  disclosed;  and  upon  which  the  life  of  man  depends.  In 
the  "  Gegensatz  "  the  contrasted  idea  is  taken  up  ;26  the  destruc- 


as  Kollewijn,  op.  cit.,  p.  75. 

36  Cf.  supra,  p.  36,  Rebhun's  use  of  a  contrasted  idea  in  the  "propor- 
tio"  of  the  choral  song. 


49 

tive  power  of  the  tongue,  for  to  reckless  words  are  due  all  the 
woes  of  mankind. 

"Wie  manchen  hat  die  zung  in  seine  gruff t  verdrungen! 
Des  menschen  tod  beruht  auf  iedes  menschen  zungen.  "27 

The  "Zusatz"  concludes  with  a  moral  precept, 

"Lernt,  die  ihr  lebt,  den  zaum  in  eure  lippen  legen,  .  .  . 
Dein  leben,  mensch !  und  todt  halt  stets  auf  deiner  zungen ! " 2* 

At  the  end  of  the  second  act  we  again  find  the  chorus  in  the 
r61e  of  ideal  spectator ;  for,  impressed  by  the  sudden  fall  of  Bal- 
bus,  it  here  reflects  upon  the  uncertainty  of  life. 29  The  chorus 
of  musicians  and  singers  in  the  first  scene  of  the  third  act  does 
not  actually  appear  on  the  stage,  but  is  supposed  to  be  sta- 
tioned outside  the  emperor's  room.30  It  serves  a  definite 
purpose  in  that  it  bridges  over  a  gap  in  the  action,  for  the 
emperor  is  represented  as  sleeping  "unter  wahrendem  seiten- 
spiel  und  gesang. "  The  choral  song  is,  however,  lyrical  and 
not  dramatic.  It  creates  an  impression  of  peace  and  security, 
and  thus  furnishes  a  contrast  to  the  terror  aroused  by  the 
appearance  of  the  spirit  of  Tarasius.  The  continuity  of  the 
action  is  broken  by  the  chorus  at  the  end  of  the  third  act. 
During  the  act  our  thoughts  are  focused  on  Balbus  and  his 
chances  of  escape.  He  fills  the  scene  and  the  chorus  shatters 
the  illusion  by  commonplace  remarks  about  dreams,  remarks 
that  have  no  connection  with  the  last  part  and  only  a  forced 
connection  with  the  first  part  of  the  act.  After  the  fourth 
act  there  is  a  double  chorus  and  a  double  set  of  "Satz," 
1 '  Gegensatz ' '  and  '  *  Zusatz. ' '  The  ' '  Satz ' '  is  sung  by  the  vir- 
gins, the  "Gegensatz"  by  the  priests,  while  both  join  in  sing- 
ing the  "Zusatz."  In  the  second  case  the  "Satz"  is  sung  by 
the  priests,  the  "Gegensatz"  by  the  virgins  and  the  "Zusatz" 
again  by  both.  Although  the  choral  songs  are  Christmas 
carols  there  is  a  slight  connection  with  the  action;  for  the 

27 II.  359-540.  28  II.  54i  and  554. 

3 » Compare  the  sentiment  of  this  chorus  with  the  last  choral  ode  of 
Oedipus  Rex  of  Sophocles. 

3  o  Act  III,  1.6.     "  Ruffe  du  die  sanger  vor  die  thur. ' ' 


50 

conspirators  gained  access  to  Leo's  palace  disguised  as  priests 
and  planned  to  kill  him  during  the  singing  of  the  second 
hymn. 

In  "Papinianus"  there  are  five  distinct  choruses:  the  chorus 
of  Papinianus'  pages,  of  the  attendants  of  Julia,  of  the  furies, 
of  the  Roman  courtiers  and  of  the  ladies-in-waiting  of  Plautia. 
Although  there  is  not  so  much  freedom  in  the  choice  of  the 
characters  who  compose  the  choruses,  there  is  greater  freedom 
in  the  way  in  which  these  choruses  are  used.  The  first  act  is 
concluded  by  a  song  in  praise  of  the  goodness  and  virtue  of 
Papinianus.  It  consists  of  eleven  six-line  strophes  sung  by 
the  pages  of  Papinianus.  In  the  second  act  the  attendants  of 
the  empress  Julia  are  present  when  Geta  is  stabbed  by  Bas- 
sianus.  After  the  murder  Julia  swoons  and  Bassianus 
rushes  from  the  stage.  The  chorus  bridges  over  the  gap  in 
the  action  with  lamentations  and  cries  of  horror.  These  are 
arranged  in  dialogue  form  as  if  intended  to  be  spoken  by  in- 
dividual members  of  the  chorus.  But  here,  as  in  all  other 
cases  when  the  chorus  appears  in  the  middle  of  the  act,  it 
does  not  affect  the  development  of  the  plot.  When  Julia 
comes  to  her  senses  the  action  is,  it  is  true,  carried  on  by  her 
and  the  chorus,  but  the  r61e  of  the  chorus  is  limited  to  single 
exclamations  which  reecho  the  grief  of  Julia.  When  a  second 
actor  comes  on  the  stage  the  chorus  remains  silent.  After 
the  second  act  there  is  an  unusual  employment  of  the  chorus. 
It  is  neither  Greek  nor  Roman,  but  bears  a  certain  resemblance 
to  the  interlude  of  the  popular  drama.31  This  interlude  is  in 
the  form  of  a  scene  between  Justice  and  the  furies,  who  sing 
separately  as  individuals  and  together  as  a  group.  During 
the  sounding  of  trumpets  Justice  descends  from  the  clouds 
to  the  earth  and  sings  of  the  punishment  that  is  to  be  devised 
for  the  fratricide,  a  punishment  so  terrible  that  all  the  earth 

3J  In  the  popular  drama,  it  was  customary  for  the  interlude  to  be  in  the 
form  of  a  scene  enacted  by  characters  other  than  those  in  the  drama.  The 
use  of  the  "  Zwischenspiel "  either  with  or  without  the  chorus  is  also  found  in 
the  Jesuit  drama.  Cf.  J.  Zeidler,  Studien  und  Beitrdge  zur  Geschichte  der 
Jesuitenkomodie  und  des  Klosterdramas.  (Theater  geschicMiche  Forschun- 
gen,  hrsg.  von  B.  Litzmann,  Heft  4,  s. 


will  speak  of  it.  She  then  calls  the  furies,  who  come  from  the 
lower  world  to  avenge  the  murder  of  Geta.  Each  presents 
herself  separately  to  Justice  and  is  given  power  to  torture 
Bassianus. 

"Das  grosse  Rom  erstarrt  ob  seinem  Bassian. 
Sein  bruder  fiel  durch  ihn;  fallt  ihr  den  morder  an!"32 

is  her  command  to  them,  after  which  she  again  returns  to 
heaven.  This  chorus,  which  is  of  the  same  type  as  the  chorus 
of  Religion  and  Heresy  in  "  Carolus  Stuardus,"33  has  absolutely 
nothing  in  common  with  the  traditional  chorus;  in  fact,  it 
can  hardly  be  called  a  chorus  at  all.  It  is  merely  a  dramatic 
scene  bearing  a  certain  relation,  it  is  true,  to  preceding  events, 
but  a  relation  that  is  artificial  and  unnatural.  At  the  con- 
clusion of  the  third  act  the  chorus  which  is  sung  by  courtiers 
refers  to  the  fall  of  Laetus,  the  instigator  to  the  murder.  It 
contains  commonplace  reflections  upon  the  impossibility  of 
escaping  the  consequences  of  sin,  describing  in  great  detail 
the  tortures  of  the  sin-laden  conscience.  The  Sophoclean  form 
of  "  Satz,"  "  Gegensatz  "  and  "  Abgesang"  is  sung  twice.  After 
the  fourth  act  we  again  find  a  fanciful  treatment  of  the  chorus. 
It  is  a  scene  between  a  group  of  furies  and  the  spirit  of  Severus, 
the  father  of  Bassianus,  and  is  really  a  continuation  of  the 
scene  after  the  second  act.34  According  to  the  stage  directions 
the  emperor  Bassianus  is  represented  as  sleeping  in  his  chair. 
An  anvil  and  hammers  are  brought  on  the  stage  by  several 
winged  spirits  and  upon  this  the  three  furies  forge  a  dagger. 
As  they  work,  each  of  these  furies  sings  a  verse  of  a  song 
referring  to  Bassianus  and  the  punishment  they  are  preparing 
for  him.  After  each  verse  the  group  sings  the  following  refrain : 

"So  wie  die  schlag  auff  diss  eisen  abgehen, 
Musse,  wer  schuldig,  die  hammer  ausstehen ! 
So  wie  die  funcken  umfliegen  und  springen, 

3»  II.  571-572.  33  End  of  Act  IV. 

34  This  also  reminds  one  of  the  popular  drama,  in  which  a  connected 
interlude  between  the  acts  of  the  drama  was  not  unusual. 


52 

Mtisse  der  blitzen  sein  hertze  durchdringen ! 

So  wie  sich  feuer  und  stahl  hier  vermahlen, 

Muss  ihn  der  fluch  auch  durchbrennen  und  qualen!"35 

The  spirit  of  Severus  expresses  his  horror  of  the  deed  and 
asks  the  furies  for  the  dagger  they  are  making,  that  he  may 
perform  the  duty  of  avenger.  When  it  is  finished  they  give 
it  to  him.  Then  all  the  spirits  vanish,  and  after  their  dis- 
appearance the  emperor  awakens  and  sorrowfully  leaves  the 
stage.  In  this  case  the  furies  may,  perhaps,  be  said  to  take 
part  in  the  action,  for  they  are  represented  as  appearing  to 
the  emperor  in  a  dream  and  torturing  him  as  he  sleeps.  In 
the  fifth  act  there  are  two  choruses;  the  attendants  of 
Papinianus  and  the  chorus  of  Roman  women,  whom  Plautia 
calls  "auserkohrne  frauen  und  freundinnen. "  The  action 
practically  ends  with  the  death  of  Papinianus,  but  the  re- 
mainder of  the  act  is  devoted  to  expressions  of  sorrow  and 
grief  over  the  disaster  that  has  befallen  him.  Both  choruses 
join  in  these  lamentations.  The  chorus  of  Roman  women 
has,  in  addition,  an  important  r61e  as  ideal  spectator,  in  that 
it  gives  expression  to  the  feelings  which  Gryphius  wished  to 
be  aroused  in  the  audience  by  the  misfortune  that  has  befallen 
a  righteous  man.  The  play  ends  with  four  lines  sung  by  the 
chorus  of  women.  They  are  in  the  form  of  an  epilogue  to  the 
play,  but  there  is  no  choral  song  after  the  fifth  act  such  as  is 
found  at  the  end  of  the  first  four  acts. 

Gryphius  introduces  into  "Carolus  Stuardus"  four  distinct 
choruses  that  have  absolutely  no  relation  to  each  other.  They 
represent  all  the  types  employed  by  him:  living  personages, 
mythological,  allegorical  and  spiritual  figures.  The  first  chorus 
warns  the  English  people  of  the  confusion  and  uproar  that 
will  result  from  the  execution  of  Charles,  and  tells  of  the 
punishments  that  come  to  those  who  put  the  kings  to  death. 
It  refers  to  King  Charles  whose  greatest  crime  was  "zu  viel 
geduld.  "36  But  in  spite  of  the  connection  with  the  preceding 
action,  the  tragic  effect  is  lost  because  the  words  are  sung  by  a 
chorus  of  spirits  of  murdered  English  kings.  The  "Chor," 

»s  II.  455-460.  36 1.  328. 


53 

"Gegenchor"  and  "Abgesang"  are  sung  three  times,  thus  giving 
an  even  more  artificial  tone  to  the  whole.  The  second  choral 
song,  in  which  the  sirens  reflect  upon  the  changes  that  have 
taken  place  on  the  European  thrones  during  recent  years, 
consists  of  general  observations  that  have  only  the  slightest 
connection  with  the  action.  This  slight  connection  is,  more- 
over, forgotten  when  the  words  are  sung  by  a  band  of  sirens,  for 
it  is  hard  to  see  the  relation  between  the  fate  of  King  Charles 
and  a  chorus  of  sirens.  Here  the  "  Chor,"  "  Gegenchor  "  and 
"Abgesang"  are  sung  twice.  After  the  third  act  a  double 
chorus  of  maidens  and  matrons  lament  the  conditions  in  Eng- 
land. Their  song  bears  a  general  relation  to  the  whole  play 
rather  than  to  any  particular  act.  It  consists  of  six  eight-line 
strophes,  overladen  with  mythological  references  in  the  style 
of  Seneca.  The  maidens  sing  the  first,  third  and  fifth  strophes, 
and  the  matrons  the  others,  but  the  choral  song  is,  however, 
not  in  dialogue  form,  for  the  words  of  the  matrons  amplify 
rather  than  answer  those  of  the  maidens.  After  the  fourth 
act  there  is  an  interlude  in  Alexandrine  meter,  which  was 
probably  intended  to  be  spoken  and  not  sung.  It  is  not  lyric 
but  dramatic,  being  a  scene  between  Religion  and  Heresy.37 
Religion  is  personated  by  one  character  and  Heresy  by  nine. 
The  interlude  begins  with  a  monologue  by  Religion,  who 
determines  to  leave  the  world  where  crime  is  committed  in  her 
name.  Now  the  responsibility  for  the  execution  of  the  king 
will  be  placed  upon  her.  As  she  is  about  to  ascend  into  the 
clouds  the  other  chorus  tries  to  prevent  her  flight  from  the 
earth.  The  mantle  which  she  wears  falls  to  the  ground,  and  a 
struggle  ensues  between  the  members  of  the  chorus  represent- 
ing Heresy  for  the  possession  of  it.  The  concluding  words 
are  spoken  by  Religion  from  the  clouds.  The  chorus  re- 
presenting Heresy  does  not  speak  in  unison,  but  each  mem- 
ber speaks  as  a  distinct  individual.  Two  choruses  appear  on 
the  stage  during  the  fifth  act.  A  chorus  of  maidens  stand  at 
the  windows  of  the  palace  and  watch  as  King  Charles  is  led 
to  the  scaffold  and  executed.  They  take  no  part  in  the 
action  and  never  address  the  actors ;  their  only  function  being 
37Cf.  supra,  p.  51. 


54 

to  comment  upon  what  is  taking  place.  They  speak  in  Alex- 
andrine meter  as  individuals,  and  only  when  the  deed  is  done 
and  they  give  utterance  to  their  grief  do  they  speak  as  a  group. 
After  the  death  of  the  king  and  at  the  end  of  the  act  the 
chorus  of  murdered  English  kings  again  appears  and  plays  a 
peculiar  rdle.  It  cannot  be  said  to  take  part  in  the  action, 
for  the  action  really  ends  with  the  death  of  the  king  and  the 
other  actors  do  not  again  appear.  Nor  is  it  in  the  form  of  a 
lyric  choral  song  such  as  we  ordinarily  find  at  the  end  of  the 
act.  It  is  rather  a  dramatic  epilogue  to  the  play,  in  which  the 
members  speak  both  as  individuals  and  as  a  group,  probably 
to  represent  the  confusion  of  the  chorus.  They  call  for 
Revenge,  who  appears  and  speaks  the  closing  words. 

Gryphius  became  the  model  for  the  other  "Kunstdramen" 
of  the  seventeenth  century.  The  best  known  of  his  successors 
are  Daniel  Casper  von  Lohenstein,  August  von  Haugwitz 
and  Johann  Christian  Hallmann,  who  imitated  him  slavishly 
both  in  form  and  content.38  Typical  members  of  the  Second 
Silesian  School,  they  carried  to  excess  all  the  faults  of  the 
Renaissance  tragedy  and  produced  tiresome  dramas  in  which 
everything  is  exaggerated  and  unnatural.  In  accordance  with 
Gryphius  and  the  Senecan  tradition  they  always  introduced  a 
chorus  at  the  conclusion  of  the  first  four  acts.  This  chorus 
was  frequently  composed  either  of  mythological  or  of  allegori- 
cal figures  such  as  justice,  virtue,  revenge,  Jupiter,  Mars,  the 
Parcae,  etc.  Nor  did  these  dramatists  hesitate  to  personify 
rivers,  mountains,  countries,  etc.  Lohenstein  in  his  "Epicha- 
ris"39  introduced  the  Tiber  and  the  seven  hills  of  Rome,  who 
lament  the  tyranny  of  Nero,  and  in  the  fourth  choral  song  he 
introduced  as  members  of  the  chorus  Europe,  Asia  and  Africa. 
The  choruses  are  full  of  pedantry,  bombastic  conversation 

3*  It  was  not  possible  to  obtain  the  dramas  of  Haugwitz  or  of  Lohenstein 
(with  the  exception  of  Cleopatra)  and  I  was  compelled  in  the  case  of  these 
two  dramatists  to  follow  E.  Grucker,  Histoire  des  doctrines  litter aires  et 
esthetiques  en  Allemagne,  Paris,  1883;  G.  Gervinus,  Geschichte  der  deutschen 
Dichtung,  Leipzig,  1871,  Vol.  V,  p.  565;  Koberstein,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  II,  p.  281  ff. 
Also,  B.  Huebner,  Die  kleineren  Dichtungen  und  Dramen  des  Prodromus 
Poeticus  von  Aug.  Ad.  von  Haugwitz,  Neuwied,  1893. 

«  End  of  Act  III. 


55 

and  erudite  moralizing.  They  have  absolutely  no  connection 
with  the  plot  and,  overladen  as  they  are  with  mythological 
references,  are  entirely  lacking  in  reality  and  life.  In  fact, 
with  Lohenstein  the  chorus  has  so  completely  ceased  to  be 
regarded  as  a  part  of  the  action  that  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
act  the  scene  is  sometimes  changed  before  the  appearance 
of  the  chorus.  The  stage-direction  for  the  second  choral 
song  of  "Cleopatra"40  is:  "Der  Schauplatz  bildet  ab  ein 
lustiges  Gebirge,"  and  for  the  fourth,  "Der  Schauplatz 
verandert  sich  in  eine  lustige  Gegend  am  Flusse  Nilus. " 
As  in  the  tragedies  of  Gryphius,  the  choral  songs  are  either  in 
the  Senecan  form  or  in  the  "  Satz,"  "  Gegensatz  "  and  "  Zusatz  " 
of  the  Greek. 

Hallmann  followed  the  dramatic  form  of  Lohenstein,  but 
the  influence  of  the  Italian  opera  is  seen  in  the  prominence  of 
the  lyric  element  in  his  dramas.  More  and  more  songs  were 
introduced  in  addition  to  the  regular  chorus,  until  Hallmann 
finally  left  the  field  of  tragedy  and  gave  himself  up  to  the 
pastoral  and  the  opera. 

In  i68441  the  "Kunstdrama"  passed  away.  With  its  dis- 
appearance the  chorus  ceased  to  be  a  recognized  part  of  drama- 
tic technic.  The  reason  for  its  brief  period  of  existence  is 
to  be  found  in  the  character  of  the  drama  itself.  Written 
entirely  for  scholars,  the  type  never  became  popular ;  the  plays 
were  seldom  performed  and  consequently  never  succeeded  in 
gaining  a  firm  foothold  in  Germany.  Even  with  Lohenstein 
clearness  of  expression  had  been  neglected  in  the  desire  to 
give  an  air  of  erudition  to  the  dramas.  Accordingly,  with  the 
increasing  importance  given  to  song,  it  was  but  a  step  from 
the  ' '  Kunstdrama "  to  the  opera  in  which  the  words  were 
entirely  subordinated  to  the  music. 

40  Edited  by  F.  Bobertag.  (Vol.  36  of  Kiirschner's  Deutsche  National- 
liter  atur.) 

«r  "Mit  dem  Jahre  1684,  in  dem  die  dramatischen  Werke  von  Hallmann 
und  Haugwitz  gesammelt  erschienen,  erlischt  das  deutsche  Renaissance  - 
drama;  es  hatte  abgewirtschaftet,  wie  am  besten  die  letzten  Auslaufer 
zeigen."  (Paul  Stachel,  Seneca  und  das  deutsche  Renaissancedrama,  Berlin, 
1907,  P-  349-) 


56 

At  this  point  it  seems  desirable  to  say  a  few  words  about  the 
theory  of  the  chorus  in  the  seventeenth  century.  The  Ger- 
man dramatists  have  in  general  preferred  to  follow  models 
rather  than  to  evolve  theories;  but  during  the  Renaissance 
period  in  which  everything  was  justified  by  reason,  and  again 
during  the  transition  period  of  the  early  eighteenth  century 
and  the  formation  of  the  regular  drama,  the  theory  of  poetry 
assumed  importance.  Many  theories  were  written  during  the 
seventeenth  century,  but  of  this  number  but  few  have  any 
reference  to  the  chorus . 4  2  Literary  criticism  i  n  the  seventeenth 
century  was  almost  entirely  dominated  by  the  works  of 
Scaliger,  Heinsius  and  Ronsard,  which  had  been  brought  into 
Germany  by  Opitz.  Just  as  in  the  criticism  of  the  drama 
in  general,  so  in  the  criticism  of  the  chorus  in  particular,  there 
is  apparent  no  desire  to  set  forth  new  ideas,  but  each  critic 
follows  closely  the  opinion  of  his  predecessor. 4 3  Consequently, 
to  know  the  theories  of  a  few  critics  is  to  know  the  theories 
of  all. 

The  sixteenth  century  dramatists  had  used  the  chorus 
blindly.  No  theories  of  dramatic  criticism  were  written,  and 
to  them  the  chorus  meant  nothing  but  a  song  between  the 
acts.  The  seventeenth  century  writers  knew  that  the  chorus 
had  been  used  in  the  classic  drama,  but  had  no  clear  idea  of  the 
purpose  it  had  served.  No  effort  is  made  to  explain  its  pre- 
sence in  the  seventeenth  century  drama,  but  the  discussions 
of  the  chorus  are  merely  superficial  statements  of  the  r61e 
it  played  in  this  drama.  Birken44  in  the  third  chapter  of 
"  Teutsche  Rede-bind  und  Dicht-Kunst " 4S  describes  the  chorus 

42  The  first  work  of  dramatic  criticism  by  a  German  was  the  Buck  von 
der  deutschen  Poeterei,  by  Opitz  (1624).  In  this,  however,  there  is  no  men- 
tion of  the  chorus. 

4  s  "Was  Opitz  am  Eingange  des  Jahrhunderts  uber  das  Drama  gesagt 
hat,  das  finden  wir  getreulich  abgedruckt  bei  Omeis,  nebst  dem,  was  alle 
seine  Vorgangerauf  demGebiete  der  'edlen  Poeterey'  geschrieben  haben." 
(Georg  Popp,  Uber  den  Begriff  des  Dramas  in  den  deutschen  Poetiken  des 
17.  Jahrhunderts,  Leipzig,  1895,  p.  28.) 

44 1  was  unable  to  obtain  the  texts  of  the  poetic  theories  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  but  was  fortunate  enough  to  find  the  important  theories  quoted 
in  G.  Popp,  op.  cit.  *s  Quoted  by  G.  Popp,  op.  cit.,  p.  34. 


57 

as  follows:  "Die  Chore  oder  Zwischenlieder  sind  nach  alien 
Handlungen  zwischen  eingeschaltet  und  entweder  von  einem 
oder  mehreren  Personen  in  eine  Musik  pflegen  abgesungen 
zu  werden.  Diese  Lieder  reden  gemeiniglich  von  den  Tugen- 
den  oder  Lastern,  welche  die  vorhergehendsten  Spielpersonen 
an  sich  gehabt:  da  jene  gelobet,  und  diese  gescholten  werden. 
Diese  Lieder  dienen  nicht  allein  den  Spielschauern  zu  zeigen, 
was  sie  aus  dem  Schauspiel  zu  lernen  haben,  sondern  auch  den 
Schauspielern,  dass  sie  Zeit  gewinnen,  sich  etwa  nach  notdurft 
umzukleiden."  In  the  didactic  purpose  of  the  chorus  is  seen 
the  influence  of  Horace.46  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the 
choral  songs  were  not  only  intended  to  teach  the  audience,  but 
to  assist  the  actors  by  giving  them  an  opportunity  to  change 
their  costumes  for  the  next  act.  The  same  idea  is  brought  out 
in  Harsdorfer, 47  who  says  of  the  chorus  :48  "  Dieses  Lied  hat  die 
Lehren,  welche  aus  vorhergehender  Geschichte  zu  ziehen, 
begriffen,  und  in  etlichen  Reimsatzen  mit  einer  oder  mehr 
Stimmen  deutlich  horen  lassen.  Die  Reimsatze  oder  Gesetze 
dienen  dies  Orts,  damit  der  Singer  dazwischen  ein  wenig  mit 
dem  Odem  rasten  kann  und  dass  die  Meinungen  nicht  zu 
sehr  ineinander  gemenget  sind,  wie  in  ungebundener  Rede 
von  etlichen  zu  geschehen  pfleget."  Even  though  the  play 
itself  be  in  prose,  the  choruses  must  always  be  in  metrical 
form.  "  Wann  man  aber  die  ungebundene  Rede  als  naturliche 
gebrauchen  wollte,  weil  der  allerfliessenste  Reim  nicht  ohne 
Zwang  ist,  so  mussen  doch  die  Chorlieder  reimweis  gesetzt 
werden."49  The  choral  song  was  used  only  in  tragedy.  In 
comedy  the  acts  were  separated  by  music,  but  not  by  singing, 
"Musik  ohne  Gesang. — Wann  aber  die  ganze  Verfassung  in 
ungebundener  Rede,  so  konnte  man  viel  dazu  gewidmete 
Lieder  singen  lassen;  sonsten  aber,  wann  es  durch  und  durch 
Verse  und  keine  Lehren  beygebracht,  so  ist  die  Musik  allein 
genug.  "so  To  this  statement  Omeis51  adds:  ".  .  .  der  Chor 

*6  Cf.  Ars  Poetica,  11.  193-201. 

*i  Poetischer  Trickier,  die  Teutsche  Dicht-  und  Reimkunst,  ohne  Behuf  der 
lateinischen  Sprache,  in  VI  Stunden  einZugiessen,  etc.,  Nurnberg,  1653. 
«•  Quoted  by  G.  Popp,  op.  cit.,  p.  37.       49  Ibid.,  p.  38.       so  ibid.,  p.  40 
s  * "  Grundliche  Anleitung  zur  Teutschen  akkuraten  Reim-  und  Dichtkunst 


58 

heutzutage  nicht  allein  zwischen  den  actibus,  sondern  auch 
im  Anfange  und  Ende  des  Spiels  durch  Vocal-  und  Instru- 
mentalconcert  sich  horen  lasst.  "52  He  also  emphasizes  the 
"usefulness"  of  the  chorus:  "Chor  oder  Zwischenlieder  dienen 
zur  Information,  indem  sie  zeigen,  was  aus  dem  Spiel  zu 
lernen  sei,  als  auch  den  Schauspielern,  dass  sie  Zeit  gewinnen, 
sich  nach  Nothdurft  auss-  und  umzukleiden."53  Thus  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  as  in  the  sixteenth,  the  chorus  was 
regarded  as  a  song  that  was  sung  by  one  or  more  persons 
between  the  acts  of  the  tragedy.  Its  purpose  was  didactic, 
to  teach  by  pointing  out  the  vices  and  virtues  of  the  actors. 
In  no  case  do  the  theorists  say  that  the  chorus  should  be 
present  during  the  action,  but  it  is  always  designated  as 
"Zwischenlied. "  During  this  century  no  attempt  was  made 
to  study  the  chorus  intensively  or  to  explain  its  significance 
in  the  technic  of  the  drama ;  and  it  is  not  until  the  eighteenth 
century  that  serious  criticism  of  the  drama  began  with  Gott- 
sched's  "Versuch  einer  critischen  Dichtkunst"  (1737),  in 
which  is  found  a  somewhat  more  comprehensive  discussion  of 
the  chorus. 

The  remainder  of  the  seventeenth  century  and  the  early 
years  of  the  eighteenth  was  a  period  of  dramatic  decadence. 
The  popular  drama  had  developed  into  the  Haupt  -und  Staats- 
action  with  all  its  crudities  and  vulgarities.  Songs,  dances 
and  instrumental  music  were  introduced  during  and  after  the 
acts,  and  all  distinction  between  drama,  opera  and  ballet 
seems  to  have  been  lost.  Goedeke54  says  of  this  epoch:  "Und 
so  verlauf t  die  dramatische  Literatur  mehr  und  mehr  in  Uber- 
setzungen  und  Aufzuge,  Ballette  und  Opern."  The  only 
dramatists  worthy  of  mention  in  this  period  are  Christian 
Felix  Weise  and  Gottsched,  neither  of  whom  employed  the 
chorus  in  their  dramas. 

Toward  the  beginning  of  the  second  quarter  of  the  eighteenth 
century  the  influence  of  Gottsched  led  to  the  reform  of  the 

durch  richtige  Lehrsatze  und  Lehrart  deutliche  Reguln  und  reine  Exempeln 
vorgestellet  von  Magnus  Daniel  Omeis." 

sa  Quoted  by  G.  Popp,  op.  cit.t  p.  46. 

S3  Ibid,,  p.  47.  *<  Op.  tit.,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  230. 


59 

coarse  and  boisterous  German  stage  and  to  the  gradual 
abandonment  of  the  Haupt-  und  Staatsactionen  for  the  digni- 
fied regular  drama,  at  first  entirely  under  French  influence, 
and  later,  in  accordance  with  the  ideas  of  Johann  E.  Schlegel 
and  Lessing  under  English  influence.  But  although  Gott- 
sched  does  not  employ  the  chorus ss  in  his  dramas,  he  discusses 
it  in  his  "  Versuch  einer  critischen  Dichtkunst.  "s6  Gottsched 
was  the  first  to  attempt  an  explanation  of  the  significance  of 
the  ancient  chorus ;  in  fact  he  restricts  himself  almost  entirely 
to  a  discussion  of  the  chorus  as  he  thought  it  was  used  by  the 
Athenians.  But,  in  common  with  the  Renaissance  critics, 
his  theories  show  the  influence  of  the  "  Ars  Poetica"  of  Horace 
rather  than  of  the  " Poetics"  of  Aristotle.  In  his  opinion  the 
antique  tragedy  was  "ausserlichem  Ansehen  nach,  in  zweyer- 
ley  Stucke  eingetheilet :  nemlich  in  das,  was  gesungen,  und  in 
das,  was  nur  gesprochen  wurde  .  .  .  freylich  war  das  Singen 
die  vornehmste  Pflicht  des  Chores,  welches  zu  vier  verschie- 
denen  Malen,  nemlich  zwischen  alien  funf  Handlungen 
geschah.  "S7  The  old  chorus  had  three  distinct  functions:  first 
and  foremost,  that  of  setting  forth  moral  precepts,  for  the 
chorus  "stimmete  allezeit  in  seinen  Liedern  solche  moralische 
Betrachtungen,  Gebethe  und  Lobgesange  an,  die  sich  zu  der 
unmittelbar  vorhergehenden  Handlung  schicketen.  Diese 
lernte  man  damals  gar  auswendig,  und  pflegte  sie  im  gemeinen 
Leben  als  Lehrsatze  und  Denkspruche  bey  Gelegenheit  an- 
zubringen. " s8  Its  second  function  was  that  of  connecting 
the  five  acts.  "Es  waren  aber  diese  funf  Handlungen  un- 
tereinander  eben  durch  den  Chor  der  Sanger  verbunden;  und 
also,"  he  adds,  "wurde  die  Aufmerksamkeit  der  Zuschauer 
auf  die  gespielte  Fabel  nie  ganz  unterbrochen :  So  wie  es  bey 
uns  durch  die  Musikanten  geschieht,  die  allerley  lustige 

ss  Gottsched  belonged  to  the  French  school  of  theorists.  He,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  technic  of  the  French  drama,  did  not  employ  the  chorus, 
but  introduced  the  confidant  which  the  French  theater  had  adopted  as  a 
substitute  for  the  old  chorus.  Cf.  supra,  p.  8. 

sfi  Leipzig,  1737,  Vol.  II,  Chap.  10. 

"Ibid.,  Vol.  II,  Chap.  X,  par.  7  and  8. 

s«  Ibid.,  Vol.  II,  Chap.  10,  par.  4. 


6o 

Stiicke  darzwischen  spielen ;  oder  auch  wohl  gar  durch  Tanzer, 
die  sich  zwischen  den  Aufzugen  sehen  lassen.  "S9  Finally  it 
was  a  spectator  of  the  action.  "Diese  Leute  (der  Chor)  nun 
fanden  sich  bald  in  der  ersten  Handlung  auf  der  Schaubuhne 
ein,  und  behielten  ihren  Platz  bis  ans  Ende  des  ganzen  Spieles. 
Sie  vertraten  daselbst  die  Stelle  der  Zuschauer,  die  bey  der 
Handlung,  so  man  spielete,  zugegen  gewesen,  als  sie  wirklich 
geschehen  war."60  Although  Gottsched  regarded  the  chorus 
as  an  important  part  of  the  technic  of  the  classic  drama  he 
does  not  say  that  it  should  be  employed  in  the  contemporary 
drama.  For  with  him  everything  was  judged  by  its  "  Wahr- 
scheinlichkeit. "  The  chorus  was  natural  to  the  antique 
drama  and  therefore  probable.  "  Denn  das  muss  man  wissen, 
dass  die  wichtigsten  Handlungen  der  alten  griechischen 
Fiirsten  nicht  zwischen  vier  Wanden;  sondern  offentlich  vor 
ihren  Pallasten,  oder  auf  den  Markten  ihrer  Stadte  vorgiengen. 
Da  war  nun  allezeit  eine  Menge  von  Zuschauern  zugegen,  die 
an  dem  Thun  und  Lassen  ihrer  Konige  Theil  nahmen ;  auch 
wohl  nach  Gelegenheit  ihre  Meynung  davon  sagten,  gute 
Anschlage  gaben,  oder  sonst  ihre  Betrachtungen  druber 
anstelleten.  Da  nun  die  Poeten  die  ganze  Natur  solcher 
offentlichen  Handlungen  vorstellen  wollten  und  soil  ten;  so 
mussten  sie  auch  Zuschauer  derselben  auf  die  Buhne  bringen : 
Und  das  war  denn  der  Chor."61  If  the  Greek  scene,  then,  was 
to  be  true  to  life,  there  had  to  be  a  chorus,  but  "heute  zu 
Tage,  da  unsre  Fursten  alles  in  ihren  Zimmern  verrichten,"62 
it  is  no  longer  probable  to  imagine  the  action  as  taking  place 
"vor  den  Augen  alles  Volks.  "63  But,  although  Gottsched  felt 
no  need  of  a  chorus  that  should  remain  upon  the  stage  through- 
out the  action,  he  did  feel  that  a  certain  advantage  was  to  be 
gained  by  the  introduction  of  a  group  of  singers  between  the 
acts.  Lively  instrumental  music  or  dancing  such  as  was 
customary  between  the  acts  of  the  German  drama,  in  his 

S9lbid.,  Vol.  II,  Chap.  10,  par.  9. 
"  Ibid.,  Vol.  II,  Chap.  10,  par.  7. 

61  Ibid.,  Vol.  II,  Chap.  10,  par.  7. 

62  Ibid.,  Vol.  II,  Chap.  10,  par.  18. 
«3  Ibid.,  Vol.  II,  Chap.  10,  par.  18. 


6i 

opinion,  served  only  to  distract  the  attention  of  the  audience 
from  the  drama  itself.64  Gottsched,  accordingly,  wonders 
"ob  es  nicht  moglich  ware  anstatt  der  alten  Oden  des  Chores, 
eine  nach  unsrer  Art  eingerichtete  Cantata,  von  etlichen 
Vocalisten  absingen  zu  lassen;  aber  eine  solche,  die  sich  alle- 
zeit  zu  den  kurz  zuvor  gespielten  Begebenheiten  schickte, 
und  folglich  moralische  Betrachtungen  dartiber  anstellete. 
Dieses  wurde  ohne  Zweif el  die  Zuhorer  in  dem  Affecte,  darinn 
sie  schon  stiinden,  erhalten,  und  zum  bevorstehenden  desto 
besser  zubereiten.  Und  eine  solche  Tragodie  wurde  zehnmal 
schoner  seyn,  als  eine  Opera,  die  den  Liebhabern  der  Musik 
zu  gef alien  alles  durchgehends  musikalisch  vorstellen  lasset; 
aber  dabey  ganz  und  gar  von  der  Natur  abgehet,  und  die 
ganze  Wahrscheinlichkeit  aufhebet.  "6s  Thus  an  opportunity 
would  be  given  to  connect  the  acts  and  to  set  forth  the  moral 
precepts;  an  idea  that  was,  of  course,  entirely  in  accordance 
with  Horace  and  the  Renaissance  tradition. 

Thus  we  have  seen  that  the  choral  song  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  yielding  to  a  natural  tendency,  which  was  hastened 
by^the  appearance  of  the  English  players,  had  given  way  to 
instrumental  music  between  the  acts.  During  the  Thirty 
Years'  War  the  dramatic  productions  of  the  preceding  cen- 
tury were  practically  forgotten,  and  the  introduction  of  the 
chorus  in  the  seventeenth  was  due  to  a  new  influx  of  foreign 
literature.  The  chorus  that  was  brought  into  Germany  in 
this  century  was  the  product  of  a  long  line  of  development 
from  the  Greek  through  the  Senecan,  Italian,  French  and 
Dutch  dramas,  and  Gryphius  followed  as  his  model  choruses 
that  had  long  lost  vital  connection  with  the  drama.  The 
blind  imitation  of  a  number  of  models  coupled  with  the 
neglect  of  stage  conventions  resulted  in  choruses  that  were 
altogether  artificial  and  incongruous,  and  in  which  there  is 
apparent  no  effort  to  appeal  to  popular  taste.  His  successors 
were  members  of  the  Second  Silesian  School.  They  found  in 
the  choral  song  an  opportunity  to  display  their  erudition  by 
means  of  obscure  mythological  references,  and  they  carried 

6  4  Ibid.,  Vol.  II,  Chap.  10,  par.  9  and  26. 
fis  Ibid.,  Vol.  II,  Chap.  10,  par.  26. 


62 

to  the  extreme  all  the  inconsistencies  and  incongruities  of  the 
choruses  of  Gryphius.  At  the  same  time  the  music  became 
so  important  a  factor  of  these  performances  that  in  1684 
the  drama  itself  gave  way  to  the  opera  and  to  the  pastoral, 
and  the  chorus  ceased  to  be  regarded  as  a  part  of  dramatic 
technic. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  CHORUS  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AND  NINETEENTH 
CENTURIES 

Contemporaneously  with  the  English  influence  in  Germany 
interest  in  ancient  literature  began  to  assert  itself ;  the  Greek 
tragedies  were  translated T  and  some  few  attempts  were  made 
to  adapt  the  chorus  to  the  German  stage.  Pyra  used  a  chorus 
in  his  tragedy  "Jephta"2  and  Cronegk,  probably  under  the 
influence  of  Racine's  "Athalie,"  attempted  in  "Olint  und 
Sophronia"  to  employ  the  chorus  as  a  means  of  connecting 
the  acts  more  closely.  But  the  chorus  was  not  popular,3  and 
when  the  play  was  performed  in  the  "Hamburg  National 
Theater"  in  1767  it  was  omitted.4  Lessing's  " Hamburgische 
Dramaturgic"  (1767)  with  its  strong  insistence  upon  the  imi- 
tation of  the  Greeks  failed  to  exert  any  immediate  influence ;  all 
antique  tendencies  were  swept  aside  by  the  "Storm  and  Stress" 
movement,  and  it  was  not  until  the  great  classical  period  of 
German  literature  that  the  gospel  of  the  imitation  of  the  Greeks 
began  to  spread.  The  first  instance5  of  the  chorus  in  this 
period  is  "Timoleon  (1785),  ein  Trauerspiel  mit  Choren, " 
by  Fr.  L.  Graf  zu  Stolberg.  In  1787  appeared  a  number  of 

1  Early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  many  German  dramatists  translated 
the  Greek  tragedies  into  German.    Joh.  Elias  Schlegel  made  some  transla- 
tions in  1737.     Cf.  Koberstein,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  V,  p.  360. 

2  Cf.  Koberstein,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  V,  pp.  360-361. 

3  Gebler  (1770)  wrote  an  heroic  drama  with  a  chorus.      Cf.  Koberstein, 
op.  cit.,  Vol.  V,  p.  393. 

4 To  this  period  belong  the  "Bardiete"  of  Klopstock:  "Hermanns 
Schlacht"  (1767),  "Hermann  und  die  Fursten"  (1784)  and  "Hermanns 
Tod"  (1787),  each  with  the  sub-title  "Ein  Bardiet  fur  die  Schaubuhne." 
But  although  these  plays  contain  "bardic"  choruses,  they  need  only  be 
mentioned  in  this  discussion,  for  Klopstock  was  not  a  dramatist,  and  the 
"Bardiete,"  though  written  for  the  stage,  are  in  no  sense  dramatic. 

s  Cf.  Koberstein,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  V,  p.  401. 

63 


64 

"Schauspiele  mit  Choren"  by  the  brothers  Chr.  and  Fr.  L. 
Grafen  zu  Stolberg.6  But  these  attempts  also  remained 
without  imitation  and  were  merely  closet-dramas.  At  this 
time  the  ghost  of  the  antique  chorus  was  haunting  the  mind  of 
Goethe.  His  study  of  the  Greek  poets  had  made  him  feel  the 
need  of  the  lyric  element  in  the  drama,  and  he  accordingly 
introduced  the  "Song  of  the  Parcae"  into  his  "Iphigenie" 
(1787).  The  lyric  element  is  also  prominent  in  "Faust," 
both  in  the  first  and  the  second  parts;  in  fact,  Goethe  never 
neglects  an  opportunity  to  bring  in  groups  of  singers :  such  as 
the  chorus  of  angels  and  women  on  Easter  morning,  the  chorus 
of  soldiers,  of  peasants,  of  spirits,  of  witches  or  of  mythological 
characters.7  In  1795  Goethe  took  up  the  serious  study  of 
Greek  tragedy  with  Schiller,  for  both  dramatists  felt  that 
only  in  the  imitation  of  classic  models  was  the  ideal  dramatic 
form  to  be  found.  At  the  same  time  Goethe  began  but  never 
completed  "Der  befreite  Prometheus"  in  which  he  intended 
there  should  be  a  chorus  of  Nereids.  In  1803  he  made  a 
careful  study  of  the  Greek  chorus,  as  is  shown  by  his  treatise 
upon  the  development  of  the  ancient  chorus  ("Uber  Entwick- 
lung  des  antiken  Chors"),  which  he  sent  to  Zelter  in  June  of 
that  year. 

Schiller's  interest  in  the  Greek  drama  was  stimulated  by 
the  "Iphigenie"  and  he  became  eager  to  try  his  hand  at  "a 
simple  tragedy  in  the  strict  Greek  form."8  He  had  translated 
some  of  the  choral  odes  in  the  "  Iphigenia  in  Aulis  "  of  Euripides 
and  had  become  interested  in  the  Greek  chorus.  In  1788  he 

6  These  plays  are  Theseus,  Belsazar,  Otanes  and  Der  Saugling;  the  first 
and  fourth  are  by  the  younger,  the  second  and  third  by  the  older  brother. 
Cf.  Koberstein,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  V,  p.  402. 

7  Although  the  grumblings  of  the  crowd  in  the  first  act  of  the  second  part 
are  in  reality  comments  upon  the  events  that  are  taking  place,  it  is  very 
improbable  that  Goethe  was,  in  this  case,  thinking  of  a  chorus,  in  either 
the  ancient  or  the  modern  sense.     For  at  no  time  is  a  connected  thought 
spoken  by  the  mob  as  a  whole,  but  what  we  have  is  a  series  of  interrupted 
expressions  which  together  suggest  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  crowd.     Cf. 
C.  Thomas,  Goethe's  Faust,  Boston,  1905,  Pt.  II,  note  to  1.  4756. 

8Cf.  Letter  to  Korner,  May  13,  1801.  (Schiller s  Brief e,  edited  by  F. 
Jonas,  Stuttgart,  Vol.  VI,  p.  277.) 


65 

began  "Die  Maltheser."  He  intended  that  the  chorus  should 
be  an  important  part  of  this  drama  and  should  be  composed 
of  sixteen  knights  of  the  religious  order.9  This  plan,  however, 
never  came  to  completion  and  it  was  not  until  August  of  1802 
that  he  seriously  set  about  writing  a  tragedy  in  the  Greek  form. 
On  May  2,  1803,  he  writes  W.  Becker:10  "Die  Braut  von  Mes- 
sina ist  freilich  nicht  im  Geschmack  der  Zeit,  aber  ich  habe  den 
Wunsch  nicht  bezwingen  konnen,  mich  auch  einmal  mit  den 
alten  Tragikern  in  ihrer  eigenen  Form  zu  messen,  und  zugleich 
die  dramatische  Wirkung  des  alten  Chors  zu  erproben." 
Schiller's  "Braut  von  Messina"  was  entirely  an  experiment, 
in  which,  as  he  writes  Iffland,"  he  thought  more  of  himself 
than  of  the  public.  It  was  not  until  the  play  was  almost 
finished  that  he  began  to  wonder  about  the  effect  upon  the 
public.  "  Die  Handlung  wird  zwar  theatralisch  genug  seyn, " 
he  writes  in  a  letter  to  Korner,  January  7,  1803,"  "aber  die 
Ausfiihrung  ist  durchaus  zu  lyrisch  fur  den  gemeinen  Zweck, 
und,  ich  darf  mit  gutem  Gewissen  hinzusetzen,  fur  das  Talent 
gemeiner  Schauspieler  zu  antik."  His  fears  were  not  ground- 
less, for  in  spite  of  its  enthusiastic  reception  at  the  first  per- 
formance at  Weimar,  the  "Braut  von  Messina"  did  not 
receive  unmixed  praise.  This  tragedy  is  unique  in  German 
literature.  No  other  drama  has  ever  been  so  ardently  admired 
or  so  bitterly  attacked  as  this  attempt  to  follow  the  Greek 
form,  and  from  the  first  the  question  of  the  tragic  effect  of 
the  chorus  has  been  one  of  the  most  important  points  of  dis- 
cussion .  After  the  first  performance  Schiller  wrote  to  Korner : 1 3 
1 '  tiber  den  Chor  und  das  vorwaltend  Lyrische  in  dem  Stucke 
sind  die  Stimmen  naturlich  sehr  getheilt,  da  noch  ein  grosser 
Theil  des  ganzen  deutschen  Publikums  seine  prosaischen 
Begriffe  von  dem  Naturlichen  in  einem  Dichterwerk  nicht 
ablegen  kann.  Es  ist  der  alte  und  der  ewige  Streit,  den  wir 
beizulegen  nicht  hoffen  durfen.  Was  mich  selbst  betrifft, 
so  kann  ich  wohl  sagen,  dass  ich  in  der  Vorstellung  der  Braut 

» Cf.  L.  Bellermann,  Schillers  Dramen,  Leipzig,  1908,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  205. 
"Schillers  Briefe,  Vol.  VII,  p.  37. 

11  Cf.  Letter  to  Iffland,  April  22,  1803,  Ibid.,  Vol.  VII,  p.  34. 
"  Ibid.,  Vol.  VII,  p.  i.     '3  March  28,  1803,     Ibid.,  Vol.  VII,  pp.  29-30. 


66 

von  Messina  zum  erstenmal  den  Eindruck  einer  wahren  Tra- 
godie  bekam.  Der  Chor  hielt  das  Ganze  trefflich  zusammen, 
und  ein  hoher,  furchtbarer  Ernst  waltete  durch  die  ganze 
Handlung.  Goethen  ist  es  auch  so  ergangen,  er  meint,  der 
theatralische  Boden  ware  durch  diese  Erscheinung  zu  etwas 
hoherem  eingeweiht  worden." 

The  tragedy  was  also  enthusiastically  received  in  Hamburg 
and  in  Berlin.  Iffland  sent  word  from  Berlin  that  the  total 
effect  was  profound,  lofty  and  awesome.  "  Die  Chore  wurden 
meisterhaft  gesprochen  und  senkten  sich  wie  ein  Wetter  uber 
das  Land."14 

Korner15  felt  that  the  chorus  heightened  the  dramatic  effect. 
He  also  felt  that  the  picture  gained  in  richness  by  the  diversity 
of  character  in  both  choruses.  On  the  other  hand,  the  play 
met  with  violent  opposition.  Herder  regarded  it  as  "ein 
crasses  Unding,"  and  the  Romanticists,?Tieck  and  the  Schlegels, 
unsparingly  criticised  both  the  chorus  and  Schiller's  concep- 
tion of  fate.  Bellermann  l6  cites  the  following  illustration 
of  how  widely  the  contemporary  dramatic  critics  differed  as 
to  the  effect  of  the  chorus.  In  reporting  the  first  performance 
of  the  "Braut  von  Messina"  in  Berlin  on  June  14,  1803,  the 
Konigliche  privilegierte  Zeitung  von  Staats-  und  gelehrten 
Sachen  of  June  16  says  of  the  chorus:  ".  .  .  die  gesprochenen 
Chore  machten  zum  Teil  eine  herrliche  Wirkung."  On  the 
same  day  the  Berliner  Nachrichten  von  Staats-  und  gelehrten 
Sachen  reported  of  the  same  performance:  "...  die  Chore 
rissen  viele  unwillkurlich  zum  Lachen  hin,  und  am  Ende  des 
Stuckes  ging  man  sehr  ruhig  fort.  .  .  .  Der  gesprochene  Chor 
tat  mehr  eine  spasshafte  als  imponierende  Wirkung." 

It  was  the  opposition  that  induced  Schiller  in  June,  1803, 
to  write  his  famous  treatise,  "Uber  den  Gebrauch  des  Chors 
in  der  Tragodie. "  * 7  In  it  he  defends  his  use  of  the  chorus  and 

'«  Cf.  letter  to  Schiller,  April  8,  1803. 

.Js  Letter  to  Schiller,  February  28,  1803.  (Schiller s  Briefwechsel  mit 
Korner ',  edited  by  K.  Goedeke,  Leipzig,  1878,  Pt.  II,  pp.  434-435.) 

**Op.  cit.,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  3. 

"  Cf.  Schiller's  Braut  von  Messina,  edited  by  W.  Carruth,  New  York, 
1901,  pp.  121-132. 


67 

at  the  same  time  takes  the  opportunity  to  make  known  his 
opposition  to  naturalism.     The  highest  type  of  art,  he  says, 
is  that  which  is  ideal  and  in  the  strictest  sense  real.     "The 
artist  can  use  no  single  element  of  the  actual  as  he  finds  it. 
His  work  must  be  ideal  in  all  its  parts  if  it  is  to  have  an  in- 
trinsic reality  and  is  to  harmonize  with  nature."     The  same  is 
true  of  tragedy.     Here  also  it  is  necessary  to  contend  with 
the  ordinary  notion  of  the  natural,  which  destroys  all  poetry. 
"All   the   externals   of   a   theatrical   representation   are  but 
symbols  of  the  real :"  time,  architecture,  language — all  are  ideal. 
Why  then  must  the  action  alone  be  real?     With  the  adoption 
of  poetic  diction  a  great  advance  was  made  toward  the  ideal 
drama,  but  "the  final,  the  decisive  step"  in  the  elevation  of 
the  tragedy  from  the  realm  of  the  natural  to  that  of  the  ideal 
would  be  "the  introduction  of  the  chorus."     "The  ancient 
tragedy  found  the  chorus  in  nature,  and  for  that  reason  em- 
ployed it.     It  grew  out  of  the  poetical  aspect  of  real  life."     But, 
he  goes  on  to  argue,  since  "the  modern  poet  no  longer  finds 
the  chorus  in  nature,  he  must  create  it  poetically;  that  is,  he 
must  so  transform  his  material  as  to  be  able  to  set  the  action 
back  into  the  time  when  life  was  simple  and  poetic."     This  is 
the  first  duty  of  the  chorus.     It  must  free  the  action  from  the 
prevailing  naturalism  of  the  modern  stage,  and  "give  to  it  its 
ideal  ground,  its  poetic  freedom."     "The  chorus  thus  renders 
more  substantial  service  to  the  modern  dramatist  than  to  the 
ancient,  for  the  reason  that  it  transforms  the  commonplace 
actual  world  into  the  old  poetic  one. "     "  The  chorus,  moreover, 
purifies  tragedy  by  separating  the  unavoidable  reflection  from 
the  action"  and  by  restricting  it  to  the  choral  passages.     At 
the  same  time  "the  tragic  poet  entwines  his  rigidly  contracted 
plot  with  a  web  of  lyrical  magnificence  in  which,  as  in  flowing 
robes  of  purple,  the  actors  move  freely  and  nobly  with  dignity 
and  lofty  calm."     The  lyric  splendor  of  the  chorus  compels 
the  poet  to  elevate  the  diction  of  the  entire  drama.     "This 
one  giant  form  on  his  canvas  obliges  him  to  mount  all  his 
figures  on  the  cothurnus  and  thus  impart  a  tragic  grandeur 
to  his  picture."     "As  the  chorus  gives  life  to  the  language, 
so  also  it  gives  repose  to  the  action" ;  for  it  not  only  allays  the 


68 

passionate  feelings  of  the  spectators  "by  the  calm  observations 
that  it  utters  between  the  outbursts  of  passion,"  but  it  also 
by  its  reflections  moderates  the  passions  of  the  actors. 

"This  is  what  the  chorus  effects  in  tragedy.  It  is,  in  itself, 
not  an  individual  but  a  universal  conception;  yet  it  is  repre- 
sented by  a  palpable  body  which  appeals  to  the  senses  with  an 
imposing  grandeur.  It  leaves  the  narrow  sphere  of  the  action 
to  enlarge  upon  the  past  and  the  future,  upon  distant  times 
and  nations,  upon  whatever  is  human;  to  sum  up  the  great 
results  of  life  and  to  express  the  maxims  of  wisdom.  But  it 
does  this  with  the  full  power  of  fancy,  with  a  bold  lyrical 
freedom  which  moves  along  on  the  high  summit  of  human 
affairs,  as  it  were,  with  the  stride  of  the  gods;  and  it  does  it 
accompanied  by  the  whole  sensuous  power  of  rhythm  and  of 
music  in  tone  and  movement." 

Here  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  German  chorus 
emphasis  is  placed  upon  the  esthetic  significance  of  the  chorus, 
which  tends  to  elevate  and  ennoble  us  by  lifting  our  thoughts 
and  feelings  above  the  commonplaces  of  life.  Schiller  was 
correct  in  saying  that  "the  chorus  of  the  Greek  drama,  the 
chorus  as  a  single  ideal  person,  furthering  and  accompanying 
the  whole  action,  had  never  been  reproduced  since  the  decline 
of  the  old  tragedy."18 

In  conclusion  Schiller  remarks  that  he  has  divided  the  chorus 
into  two  parts  and  has  represented  it  in  conflict  with  itself; 
but  this,  he  adds,  is  only  the  case  when  it  acts  as  a  real  person 
and  as  an  unthinking  multitude.  As  chorus  and  as  ideal 
person  it  is  always  one  and  united.  This  is  more  clearly 
brought  out  in  a  letter  to  Korner :  * 9 "  Wegen  des  Chors  bemerke 
ich  noch,  dass  ich  in  ihm  einen  doppelten  Charakter  darzu- 
stellen  hatte,  einen  allgemein  menschlichen,  namlich,  wenn  er 
sich  im  Zustand  der  ruhigen  Reflexion  befindet,  und  einen 
specifischen,  wenn  er  in  Leidenschaft  gerath  und  zur  handeln- 
den  Person  wird.  In  der  ersten  Qualitat  ist  er  gleichsam 
ausser  dem  Stuck  und  bezieht  sich  also  mehr  auf  den  Zuschauer. 
Er  hat,  als  solcher,  eine  Uberlegenheit  uber  die  handelnden 

18  Uber  den  Gebrauch  des  Chors  in  der  Tragodie,  p.  131. 
'»  March  10,  1803.     (Schillers  Briefe,  Vol.  VII,  p.  24.) 


69 

Personen,  aber  bloss  diejenige,  welche  der  ruhige  iiber  den 
passionierten  hat.  ...  In  der  zweiten  Qualitat,  als  selbst- 
handelnde  Person,  soil  er  die  ganze  Blindheit,  Beschranktheit, 
dumpfe  Leidenschaftlichkeit  der  Masse  darstellen,  und  so 
hilft  er  die  Hauptfiguren  herausheben." 

That  Schiller's  chorus  is  not  Greek  has  been  frequently 
pointed  out  by  the  commentators.  But  Schiller  did  not  set 
out  to  imitate  a  Greek  tragedy.  What  he  intended  was  a 
tragedy  that  should  be  strictly  Greek  in  form ;  "  with  a  simple 
action,  few  characters,  close  observation  of  the  unities,  and 
a  chorus  that  was  to  be  the  '  Hauptwirkung '  of  the  whole 
drama,"20  and  yet,  at  the  same  time,  one  that  should  be  dis- 
tinctly his  own  creation.  The  chorus  in  the  "Braut  von 
Messina"  is,  accordingly,  not  an  imitation  of  the  old  chorus 
but  a  new  creation,  and  as  such  is  interesting  and  important  for 
the  history  of  the  chorus  in  the  German  drama.  The  question 
is,  therefore:  Is  the  chorus,  as  Schiller  conceived  it,  logical  and 
consistent,  and  does  it  perform  for  the  tragedy  the  office 
Schiller  claims  it  should?  Most  of  the  critics  say  no.  From 
the  first  appearance  of  the  "Braut  von  Messina"  criticism 
has  centered  about  two  points  that  were  first  mentioned 
by  Wilhelm  von  Humboldt.  In  a  letter  to  Schiller21  (October 
22,  1803,)  he  wrote  that  he  had  two  objections  to  make  with 
regard  to  the  chorus.  uEr  ist  den  handelnden  Personen  zu 
nah."  The  members  of  the  chorus,  he  felt,  should  not  have 
been  represented  as  the  vassals  of  the  two  brothers,  for  "da 
sie  jeder  einem  andern  Herrn  folgen,  sind  sie  nicht  mehr  reine 
Burger  von  Messina,  und  da  ihr  eigner  Ehrgeiz  ins  Spiel 
kommt,  ist  ihr  Urtheil  nicht  das  unpartheiische  des  Schicksals, 
so  wie  es  sich  in  Menschen  ausspricht."  The  second  objection 
concerns  the  division  of  the  chorus  into  two  parts.  "Den 
Chor  auf  eine  Art  fur  die  ganze  Okonomie  des  Stxicks  wichtige 
und  geltende  zu  theilen,"  Humboldt  considers  an  excellent 
idea;  but,  he  continues,  "Ihre  Theilung  hat  mich  nicht  ganz 
befriedigt.  An  sich  ware  das  Alter  gewiss  ein  ganz  schicklicher 

20  Letter  to  Iffland,  February  24,  1803,     Ibid.,  Vol.  VII,  p.  17. 

21  Briefwechsel  zwischen   Schiller  und  Wilhelm  von  Humboldt.     Edited 
by  A.  Leitzmann,  Stuttgart,  1900,  pp.  309-313. 


70 

Theilungsgrund.  Allein  da  beide  Theile  Ihres  Chors  noch  jetzt 
dienende  und  mitwirkende  Ritter  sind.  .  .  so  giebt  er  eigent- 
lichen  Zwiespalt,  da  er  nur  Contrast  zeigen  sollte.  Denn  in 
allem,  was  auf  die  Handlung  Bezug  hat,  muss  der  Chor  mit 
sich  selbst  vollkommen  ubereinstimmend  sein." 

Humboldt's  words  have  been  echoed  by  the  critics  ever 
since.  Thus  in  the  first  place  they  claim  that  the  chorus  takes 
so  active  a  part  in  the  action  that  it  is  blinded  by  passion  and 
because  of  partisanship  is  hindered  from  the  universal  point 
of  view  which  is  the  office  of  the  chorus.  Secondly,22  they 
maintain  that  the  chorus  never  forms  a  unified  whole ;  that  it 
is  psychologically  impossible  for  two  semi-choruses  that  have 
such  contradictory  interests  in  the  action  and  that  possess  all 
the  narrowness,  blindness  and  stupid  passion  of  the  mob  to 
unite  in  harmonious  reflection  and  express  the  same  sentiments. 

Schiller  attempted  to  justify  the  division  of  the  chorus  by 
saying  that  there  is  such  a  division  only  when  the  chorus  acts 
as  "wirkliche  Person"  and  as  "blinde  Menge."  But  neither 
this  statement  nor  his  claim  that  the  chorus  as  ideal  spectator 
is  always  one  with  itself  is  convincing.  The  fact  is,  Schiller's 
effort  to  make  the  chorus  play  a  double  r61e  resulted  in  some- 
thing quite  different  from  what  he  had  intended.  He  was  not 
satisfied  to  introduce  a  chorus  in  imitation  of  the  Sophoclean 
chorus,  that  is,  one  that  by  its  questions  would  further  the 
development  of  the  plot,  and  during  the  pauses  in  the  action 
would  reflect  upon  the  events  that  were  taking  place ;  but  his 
chorus  must  also  bring  into  prominence  the  characters  of  the 
leaders.  This  necessitated  the  division  of  the  chorus  into  two 
groups  with  characteristics  so  utterly  different  that  as  a  result 
the  impression  of  two  distinct  choruses  is  much  stronger  than 
that  of  a  single  chorus  at  times  divided  into  two  parts.  This 
impression  is,  moreover,  emphasized  by  the  way  in  which 
Schiller  develops  the  action,  for  the  first  chorus  is  always  in 
the  foreground,  it  is  the  leading  chorus  and  to  it  are  given  the 
important  reflective  passages.  At  their  first  appearance  the 

22  This  is  the  substance  of  the  criticism  made  by  B.  Gerlinger,  Die 
griechischen  Elements  in  Schiller s  Braut  von  Messina,  Augsburg,  1858, 
P- 33- 


two  groups  are  placed  in  strong  contrast:  the  followers  of  Don 
Manuel,  older  and  accordingly  more  serious,  more  reserved, 
and  more  given  to  the  "reflection  that  befits  old  age";23  the 
followers  of  Don  Cesar,  younger,  hasty,  wrathful  and  desirous 
of  war.  For  this  reason,  the  first  choral  passage,  "Hort,  was 
ich  bei  mir  selbst  erwogen,"24  which  is  spoken  by  the  knights 
of  Don  Manuel,  must  be  regarded  as  being  the  sentiments  of 
this  chorus  alone.  It  is,  however,  only  natural  that  the  whole 
chorus  should  unite  in  saying: 

' '  Aber  wir  f echten  ihre  Schlachten ; 
Der  ist  kein  Tapfrer,  kein  Ehrenmann, 
Der  den  Gebieter  lasst  verachten";25 

for  all  are  vassals  whose  only  law  is  the  command  of  the  leaders. 
During  the  two  most  important  choral  passages,  "Sage  was 
werden  wir  jetzt  beginnen,"26  and  "Sagt  mir!  Ich  kann's 
nicht  fassen  und  deuten," 27  the  first  chorus  is  on  the  stage  alone. 
The  choral  passage,  "  Durch  die  Strassen  der  Stadte"28  is  also 
spoken  by  the  first  chorus  as  the  body  of  Don  Manuel  is  brought 
on  the  stage.  In  these  lyric  passages  the  chorus  produces  the 
effect  that  Schiller  claims  it  should.  Here  it  approaches  its 
ideal  significance  and  rises  to  its  loftiest  heights,  giving  a  moral 
and  poetic  grandeur  to  the  tragedy.  The  passages  spoken 
by  the  second  chorus  alone,  "Heil  dir,  O  Jungfrau,"29  and  "  Den 
begunstigten  Sohn  der  Gotter  beneid'  ich,"  3°  are  not  reflective, 
but  are  in  the  lighter  and  more  joyous  vein  of  the  hymeneal 
song,  and  accordingly  entirely  in  keeping  with  the  character 
of  the  younger  chorus. 

In  the  last  act,  however,  when  the  death  of  Don  Manuel 
forces  the  allegiance  of  the  first  chorus  to  Don  Cesar,  and  when 
tragic  events  such  as  would  stir  the  depths  of  even  the  lightest 
and  most  thoughtless  nature  lift  the  second  chorus  above  its 
hatred  and  enmity  to  a  contemplation  of  the  great  underlying 
principles  of  life,  the  chorus  is,  for  the  first  time,  "ems  mit  sich 

3*L.   155.  2«L1.  190-254.  «SLI.  187-189. 

a6  LI.  861-980.  *7  LI.  1929-2027.  '» LI.  2267-2308. 

3'L1.  1174-1210.  *»L1.  1230-1259. 


72 

selbst,"31  and  becomes,  in  truth,  the  ideal  spectator.  Then 
and  then  only  do  both  groups  unite  in  saying  "Auf  den 
Bergen  ist  Freiheit!"32  and  for  the  remainder  of  the  play  there 
is  but  one  chorus.  It  is  just  this  division  into  two  distinct 
groups,  one  a  band  of  serious  men  who,  because  of  their  ex- 
perience and  maturity,  might  reasonably  give  utterance  to  deep 
and  profound  thoughts,  and  the  other,  a  band  of  impulsive, 
passionate  men  who  do  not  reflect,  that  makes  the  chorus 
psychologically  possible. 33  For  by  this  division,  Schiller,  even 
while  developing  the  semi-choruses  in  such  a  way  as  to  make 
them  reflect  the  characters  of  their  leaders,  is  enabled  to  avoid 
the  necessity  of  "uniting  the  utterly  dissimilar  choruses  in 
harmonious  reflection  or  of  making  them  express  the  same 
sentiments."34  The  other  objection  raised  by  the  critics  may 
be  stated  thus:  How  can  the  chorus  without  contradicting 
itself  at  one  time  blindly  follow  the  course  of  events  and  at 
another  be  capable  of  impartial  judgment?  This  objection 
might  be  brought  against  the  impulsive,  wrathful  followers 
of  Efon  Cesar,  but  until  the  end  of  the  play  they  do  not  reflect. 
According  to  Humboldt35  "der  Chor  muss  ohnmachtig,  dienend 
und  schwach  sein,  aber  frei  und  nicht  einmal  durch  Neigung 
gefesselt."  This  is  true  of  Schiller's  first  chorus.  For  a 
group  of  men  who  as  members  of  a  conquered  race  are  bound 
to  their  rulers  by  no  ties  of  sympathy  or  regard,  who  as  vassals 
must  acknowledge  an  allegiance  they  do  not  feel,  are  not  likely 
to  be  so  carried  away  by  feelings  of  partisanship  as  to  be  in- 
capable of  calm  and  impartial  reflection.  The  first  chorus 
asks: 

"  Warum  ziehn  wir  mit  rasendem  Beginnen 

Unser  Schwert  fur  das  fremde  Geschlecht? 

Es  hat  an  diesen  Boden  kein  Recht."36 

3*  Cf.  Uber  den  Gebrauch  des  Chors  in  der  Tragbdie,  p.  132. 

3'  LI.  2585-2588. 

33  It  seems  as  though  Schiller's  dramatic  feeling  guided  him  safely  where 
his  theories,  if  actually  carried  out,  would  have  led  him  astray;  for  a  chorus 
such  as  he  claims  his  is,  would  have  been  psychologically  impossible. 

3<  Cf.  supra,  footnote  to  p.  70. 

35  Letter  to  Schiller,  October  22,  1803,     op.  cit.,  p.  309. 

a6  LI.  203-205. 


73 

"Sklaven  sind  wir  in  den  eigenen  Sitzen, 
Das  Land  kann  seine  Kinder  nicht  schiitzen."37 

In  fact,  the  point  that  is  most  clearly  brought  out  at  the  first 
appearance  of  the  chorus  is  that  it  does  not  express  personal 
enmity,  but  the  enmity  that  a  vassal  must  feel  for  the  enemies 
of  his  prince.38 

11  Dich  nicht  hass'  ich !     Nicht  du  bist  mein  Feind ! 
Eine  Stadt  ja  hat  uns  geboren, 
Jene  sind  ein  fremdes  Geschlecht. 
Aber  wenn  sich  die  Fiirsten  befehden, 
Mussen  die  Diener  sich  morden  und  toten, 
Das  ist  die  Ordnung,  so  will  es  das  Recht."39 

Moreover,  although  the  chorus  does  not  stand  aloof  from 
the  storm  and  stress  of  the  action,  as  does  the  Greek  chorus, 
the  feelings  it  expresses  are  merely  reflected  feelings.  Schiller 
gives  the  chorus  the  blindness,  pettiness  and  stupid  passion 
of  the  mob  that  it  may  the  more  naturally  reflect  the  charac- 
teristics of  the  leaders  and  thus  throw  them  into  prominence; 
but  the  chorus  never  by  its  own  actions  vitally  affects  the 
development  of  the  plot.40 

When  the  chorus  is  considered  as  two  distinct  groups  each 
group  is  seen  to  be  logically  and  consistently  developed  and 

•»  LI.  222-223. 

3*  The  antique  chorus  always  stands  in  a  definite  relation  to  the  hero, 
in  most  cases,  one  of  loyalty,  though  sometimes  of  hostility.  In  the  Ajax 
of  Sophocles  the  chorus  of  Salaminian  sailors  is  bound  to  Ajax  by  closest 
ties  of  allegiance,  but  is  too  weak  either  to  prevent  his  death  or  to  secure 
his  burial.  Like  the  chorus  in  the  Braut  von  Messina,  this  chorus  takes 
part  in  the  action  but  is  powerless  to  affect  the  development  of  the  plot. 

3  9  LI.  175-180. 

4°  In  several  cases  Schiller  goes  too  far  in  making  them  reflect  the  leaders. 
When  the  members  of  the  chorus  embrace  after  the  reconciliation  of  the 
brothers  the  effect  more  closely  approaches  the  ludicrous  than  the  dramatic. 
Although  later  in  the  play  it  is  not  unnatural  that,  under  provocation, 
the  habits  of  a  lifetime  should  come  to  the  fore  and  that  the  first  chorus 
should  contend  with  the  second,  still  the  whole  scene  impresses  one  as  being 
an  unnecessary  lowering  of  the  dignity  of  the  chorus. 


74 

the  first  chorus,  reserved,  serious,  fearful  of  consequences,  in 
fact  possessing  all  the  characteristics  of  the  Greek  chorus,  is 
far  enough  removed  from  the  action  to  be  capable  of  impartial 
reflection. 

Schiller  made  no  attempt  to  imitate  the  complicated  metrical 
form  of  Greek  tragedy  with  the  strophe,  antistrophe  and  epode, 
but  used  the  simplest  verse  forms;  the  most  usual  being  the 
irregular  stanza  composed  of  trochaic  and  dactylic  tetrameter. 
The  lyrics  have  all  the  dignity  and  sublimity  of  the  antique 
choral  odes.  In  spite  of  the  very  great  disagreement  on  other 
points,  all  the  critics  agree  with  Hoffmeister,41  who  says  with 
regard  to  the  choral  songs:  "diese  mit  der  grossten  Sorgfalt 
ausgearbeiteten  und  mit  erhabener  Pracht  vorgetragenen,  das 
ganze  Leben  iiberblickenden,  himmelansteigenden  Hymnen 
und  Betrachtungen  ...  in  denen  eine  Ideenfulle,  eine  Kraft, 
Frische  und  Kuhnheit  der  Darstellung  und  eine  Kunst  des 
Ausdrucks  und  Versmasses  aufgeboten  ist,  dass  diese  Strophen 
zu  dem  Schonsten  gehoren,  was  Schiller  gedichtet  hat." 

Bulthaupt42  says  of  the  "Braut  von  Messina":  "sieist  voll 
Kraft  und  Leben,  und  wenn  es  uberhaupt  moglich  ware, 
unserem  Theater  den  antiken  Chor  zuruckzugewinnen,  so 
ware  sie  fur  diese  Moglichkeit  der  beste  Beweis  gewesen." 
The  chorus  is,  moreover,  logically  and  consistently  developed, 
and  performs  in  the  tragedy  the  office  Schiller  claims  it 
should.  And  yet  this  tragedy  served  only  to  bring  the 
chorus  again  to  the  fore  and  to  prove  once  and  for  all  the  im- 
possibility of  making  it  a  part  of  dramatic  technic. 43  Schiller's 
prefatory  essay  is  itself  not  convincing.  Of  the  four  ways  in 
which  he  claims  the  drama  would  be  benefited  by  the  intro- 
duction of  the  chorus,  all  would  not  be  accepted  as  advan- 
tageous, and  in  the  case  of  each  the  same  effect  could  be  se- 
cured without  the  chorus.  That  the  chorus  does  elevate  the 
diction  of  the  drama  is,  of  course,  indisputable;  but  Schiller's 

41  Quoted  from  Bellermann,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  82. 

43  Dramaturgic  des  Schauspiels,  Leipzig,  1898,  Vol.  I,  p.  398. 

43  Schiller,  of  course,  never  intended  that  the  introduction  of  the  chorus 
should  be  an  advance  in  the  development  of  German  tragedy,  but  merely 
an  experiment  in  the  antique  form.  Cf .  supra,  p.  65. 


75 

own  dramas  are  sufficient  proof  of  the  possibility  of  maintain- 
ing a  high  poetic  tone  without  a  chorus.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  poet  who  adopts  the  chorus  is  necessarily  restricted  in  the 
selection  of  his  subject,  for  in  order  that  the  "chorus  may  not 
appear  as  a  disturbing  element  in  the  drama,  the  plot  must 
be  so  transformed  that  it  can  be  set  back  in  that  simple  poetic 
form  of  life  of  which  the  chorus  is  the  natural  product. ' ' 4 4  This 
means  that  none  save  the  simplest  plot  can  be  used,  for  such 
a  transformation  would  be  impossible  in  the  case  of  the  highly 
developed  and  highly  concentrated  action  of  the  historical 
drama,  such  as  " Wallenstein,"  "Wilhelm  Tell,"  "Macbeth" 
or  "Richard  III."  Nor  is  the  naive  poetic  conception  of  life 
which  the  introduction  of  the  chorus  demands  compatible 
with  the  realism  of  Ibsen's  "Ghosts,"  Hauptmann's " Die 
Weber,"  "  Vor  Sonnenaufgang,"  or  in  fact  any  of  our  modern 
naturalistic  dramas.  The  drama  has  always  been  a  history  of 
advance  and  development;  the  dramatist  must  deal  with  the 
problems  of  his  own  day  and  must  use  that  dramatic  form 
which  best  enables  him  to  do  so.  Accordingly,  any  technical 
requirement  that  demands  a  return  to  the  simple  life  of  an  age 
that  is  past  would  mean  the  sacrifice  of  the  highest  office  of 
the  drama.45  This  difficulty  presented  itself  to  Wilhelm  von 
Humboldt.  "Ich  wiinschte,"  he  wrote,46  "dassSiemit  den 
neuen  Foderungen,  die  Sie,  nach  dem  Gelingen  dieses  S  tucks, 
mit  Recht  an  sich  machen  konnen,  bald  wieder  einen  in  sich 
schwereren,  schon  durch  seinen  Umfang  muhsam  zu  bandi- 
genden  Stoff,  wenn  nicht  einen  wie  'Wallenstein,'  doch  wie 
die  'Jungfrau'  behandelten."  A  great  part  of  the  public, 

44  Cf.  Uber  den  Gebrauch  des  Chors  in  der  Tragodie,  p.  127. 

45  Freytag  claims  that  modern  tragedy  is  composed  of  a  main  and  a 
secondary  action.     These  actions,  which  he   designates  as   "Spiel"  and 
"Gegenspiel,"  are  distinct  or  even  hostile  to  each  other  throughout  the 
development  of  the  plot,  but  are  united  in  the  catastrophe.     The  antique 
tragedy,  on  the  other  hand,  had  a  simple  action  which  was  entirely  concerned 
with  the  fate  of  the  hero.     Consequently,  the  subordinate  characters  of 
the  modern  drama  are  able  to  express  perfectly  that  which  was  expressed 
in  the  antique  tragedy  by  the  chorus.     Cf .  Die  Technik  des  Dramas,  Leipzig, 
1890,  pp.  91-99- 

<6  Letter  to  Schiller,  October  22,  1803,  op.  cit.,  p.  312. 


76 

he  continues,  would  prefer  the  "Jungfrau  von  Orleans"  to 
the  "Braut  von  Messina"  "weil  sie,  neben  der  kiinstlerischen 
Wirkung,  auch  einer  durch  ihren  blossen  Stoff  fahig  sind." 
Humboldt  himself  realized  that,  "zwischen  der  alten  und 
neuen  Tragodie  noch  ein  andrer  Unterschied  ist,  als  der  der 
blossen  Kunstform.  .  .  .  Es  versetzt  das  Gemiit  in  eine  andere 
Stimmung,  wenn  eine  reichere  Welt  sich  bewegt,  und  wenn 
nicht  bloss  die  grossen  Partieen  der  Menschheit,  wenn  auch 
feine  Charakterntiancen  erscheinen."  The  chorus  purifies 
the  tragedy  by  restricting  the  reflection  to  the  lyric  passages,47 
and  at  the  same  time  gives  repose  to  the  action  by  the  senti- 
ments it  expresses  in  these  passages.  It  is  just  this,  how- 
ever, that  makes  the  chorus  dramatically  ineffective;  for 
the  prominence  of  the  lyric  element  inevitably  results  in  lack 
of  action,  and  what  the  tragedy  gains  in  repose  by  the  presence 
of  the  chorus  it  loses  in  dramatic  reality.  Moreover,  the 
lyrics  frequently  retard  the  action  at  vital  points  and  thus 
weaken  the  tragic  tension.  The  greeting  of  the  chorus48 
when  Isabella  appears  with  her  sons  is  too  long  for  the  dramatic 
situation.  In  the  last  act49  the  lament  of  the  first  chorus  is 
psychologically  impossible,  for  it  is  not  natural  that  Isabella 
should  have  to  wait  until  the  chorus  has  finished  its  dirge 
before  she  is  told  of  the  death  of  her  son.  In  spite  of  the 
beauty  of  the  lyric  passage  the  needless  pause  destroys  the 
tragic  effect .  Reflection  does  play  an  important  rdle  in  the  mod- 
ern psychological  drama,  but  it  must  be  scattered  through 
the  play,  it  must  follow  spontaneously  from  the  action  or 
event  that  prompted  it.50  What  we  object  to  is  reflection 
reserved  for  one  necessary  moment,  reflection  that  seems  to 
retard  the  action  merely  to  instruct  or  elevate.  Besides,  the 

47  Other  dramatists  have  felt  the  need  of  separating  the  reflective  element 
from  the  rest  of  the  drama.  Cf .  Hebbel,  who  in  his  "  Tagebuch,"  June  28, 
1844,  complains  that  modern  tragedy  in  giving  up  the  chorus  has  lost  an 
intrinsic  element  in  the  attainment  of  tragic  effect.  He  felt  the  need  of  an 
agent  by  means  of  which  the  dramatist  could  express  his  own  ideas 
without  putting  them  in  the  mouths  of  the  actors. 

<8  LI.  255-293.  49  Act  IV,  sc.  4. 

«°  Cf.  the  use  of  the  reflective  element  in  Augustus  Thomas'  intensely 
psychological  play  As  a  Man  Thinks. 


77 

great  poet  is  always  able  to  develop  the  plot  in  such  a  way 
that  the  necessary  reflection  may  be  spoken  by  the  actors;51 
and  other  means  have  also  been  found  for  relieving  the  painful 
tension  of  the  tragic  situation.52 

Probably  the  greatest  objection  that  can  be  brought  against 
the  chorus  is  the  impossibility  of  having  it  on  the  stage  during 
moments  of  intense  feeling  and  strong  psychological  effect. 
This  was  recognized  by  the  Greek  poets  whose  dramas  are 
not  notably  psychological,  and  this  accounts  for  the  removal 
of  the  chorus  from  the  orchestra  in  the  "Ajax"  of  Sophocles. 
Schiller  himself  does  not  bring  the  chorus  on  the  stage  during 
the  scenes  in  which  Isabella  tells  Don  Manuel  and  Don  Cesar 
of  their  sister,53  nor  the  one  in  which  Diego  reports  the  disap- 
pearance of  Beatrice.54  The  presence  of  the  chorus  when 
Isabella  is  endeavoring  to  conciliate  her  sons  is  esthetically 
ineffective  and  we  sympathize  with  her  when  she  says  : 

' '  Wozu  die  f remde  Schar,  wenn  eine  Mutter 
Das  Herz  aufschliessen  will  vor  ihren  Kindern?"55 

From  the  first  there  were  practical  difficulties  of  stage  pre- 
sentation. It  was  not  advisable  for  the  choral  passages  to  be 
sung  when  the  rest  of  the  play  was  to  be  recited,56  and  it  was 
also  monotonous  and  unnatural  for  the  lyrics  to  be  declaimed 
by  all.57  It  was,  accordingly,  necessary  to  divide  them  among 
five  or  six  individuals. s8  But  with  these  unavoidable  changes, 
we  lose  the  true  effect  of  the  chorus,  for  its  intrinsic  nature 
is  destroyed.59  The  best  criticism  of  the  chorus  is  probably 

s1  Cf.  the  use  of  monologues. 

s 2  Cf .  Shakespeare's  use  of  the  comic  element. 

S3  Act  II,  sc.  5.  S4  Act  II,  sc.  6.  550.331-332 

s6Cf.  letter  of  Korner  to  Schiller,  February  28,  1803,  Briefwechsel 
zwischen  Korner  und  Schiller,  p.  435. 

sf  Schiller  at  first  wished  the  chorus  to  be  sung  with  musical  accompani- 
ment, but  later  gave  up  the  idea.  Cf.  letter  to  Zelter,  February  28,  1803. 
(Schillers  Briefe,  Vol.  VII,  p.  18). 

s«  Cf.  letter  to  Korner,  February  6,  1803.  (Schillers  Briefe,  Vol.  VII, 
p.  10),  "Es  ist  nichts  nothig,  als  dass  ich  den  Chor,  ohne  an  den  Worten 
das  geringste  zu  verandern,  in  5  oder  6  Individuen  auflose."  Cf.  also, 
letter  to  Goethe,  February  8,  1803.  (Vol.  VII,  p.  1 1). 

J'Cf.  letter  to  Korner,  February  6,  1803.     (Schillers  Briefe,  Vol.  VII, 


78 

Schiller's  own  statement60  with  regard  to  the  impossibility  of 
presenting  it  properly  on  the  modern  stage.  "Das  tragische 
Dichterwerk  wird  erst  durch  die  theatralische  Vorstellung  zu 
einem  Ganzen;  nur  die  Worte  giebt  der  Dichter,  Musik  und 
Tanz  mussen  hinzukommen,  sie  zu  beleben.  Solange  also  dem 
Chor  diese  sinnlich  machtige  Begleitung  fehlt,  solange  wird  er 
in  der  Okonomie  des  Trauerspiels  als  ein  Aussending,  als  ein 
fremdartiger  Korper  und  als  ein  Aufenthalt  erscheinen,  der 
nur  den  Gang  der  Handlung  unterbricht,  der  die  Tauschung 
stort,  der  den  Zuschauer  erkaltet."  Thus,  as  Schiller  him- 
self points  out,  the  essential  difficulty  with  the  chorus  is 
that  it  lacks  the  vital  characteristics  of  the  Greek  chorus,  song 
and  the  sensuous  appeal  of  rhythmic  motion.  To  be  sure 
there  is  left  the  appeal  of  beautiful  poetry,  but  this  poetry, 
which  could  neither  be  sung  nor  declaimed  by  the  chorus  as  a 
whole,  would  have  been  more  effective  in  the  form  of  a 
monologue.61 

A  number  of  antique  dramas  with  choruses  followed  in  the 
wake  of  the  "Braut  von  Messina,"  but  none  were  of  any 
importance.62  In  1805,  Joh.  Aug.  Apel  wrote  "Polyidos." 
This  was  followed  in  1806  by  "Die  Aitolier,"  and  in  1807  by 
"Kallirrhoe."  In  1805  G.  Ant.  Fr.  Ast  wrote  "Krosus,"  and 
in  1807  appeared  the  "Niobe"  of  Wilh.  von  Schiitz.  This 
was  followed  by  "Graf  und  die  Grafin  von  Gleichen"  in  1808. 

But  even  in  this  period  there  were  some  who  objected  to 
the  imitation  of  Greek  tragedy.  Both  in  the  "Fragmente 
iiber  die  neuere  deutsche  Litteratur"  and  in  the  "  Ideen  zur 
Geschichte  und  Kritik  der  Poesie  und  bildenden  Kunste," 
1794-96,  Herder  speaks  forcefully  against  any  attempt  to  re- 

p.  n),  in  which  Schiller  writes:  "Sie  (die  Dresdner  Schauspieler)  sollen  mir 
das  Stuck  spielen,  ohne  nur  zu  wissen,  dass  sie  den  Chor  der  alten  Tragodie 
auf  die  Buhne  gebracht  haben."  This  is  true,  for  with  the  distribution 
of  the  choral  odes  among  the  individuals,  there  ceased  to  be  a  chorus. 

60  Uber  den  Gebrauch  des  Chors  in  der  Tragodie,  p.  121. 

61  There  is  little  difference  between  the  lyrics  of  the  Braut  von  Messina 
and  the  monologues  of  Shakespeare.     In  fact,  a  chorus  could  equally  well 
have  been  introduced  in  Hamlet  to  reflect  upon  the  enigma  of  life  instead 
of  having  this  in  the  form  of  a  soliloquy  spoken  by  the  Prince  of  Denmark. 

62  Cf.  Koberstein,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  V,  p.  402. 


79 

produce  the  classic  drama.  "In  Sprache  und  Sitten  werden 
wir  nie  Griechen  und  Romer  werden,  wir  wollen  es  auch  nicht 
sein,"63  is  his  reason  for  the  impossibility  of  imitating  any  type 
of  antique  literature.  Referring  directly  to  the  use  of  the  chorus 
in  the  German  drama,  he  says:  "Bei  den  Griechen  war  die 
ganze  Sprache  Gesang ;  in  die  kleinsten  Theile  und  Wortfugun- 
gen  derselben,  in  die  verschlungensten  Gange  der  poetischen 
Erzahlung  erstreckte  sich  die  eben  so  verschlungene  Kunst  des 
Rhythmus  und  der  Metrik."64  This  is  apparent  in  all  the  tragic 
and  comic  choruses.  But  the  German  language  ' '  ist  zu  philoso- 
phisch  altklug,  zu  eingeschrankt  unter  Gesetze  und  nicht  zu  den 
Sylbenmassen  des  Pindars  und  der  Chore  vieltrittiggenug."65 
Herder  considered  merely  the  emotional  aspect  of  the  chorus.66 
To  him  the  choral  ode  was  the  expression  of  the  emotions  and 
its  sole  function  was  to  furnish  music  for  the  Greek  drama67 
which  was  sung  throughout.  Accordingly,  when  the  drama 
ceased  to  be  sung,  the  chorus  lost  all  excuse  for  existence. 

But  in  spite  of  his  strong  objections  to  the  imitation  of  the 
classic  dramas,  Herder  himself  wrote  plays  upon  Greek  sub- 
jects in  which  he  introduced  the  chorus.68  In  the  preface  to 
"Admetus  Haus"  (1803)  Herder's  son  describes  the  play  as 
an  attempt  to  reproduce  the  Greek  drama.  "Die  hohe  Ein- 
falt,"  he  writes,  "des  griechischen  Drama,  der  tiefe  Sinn  des 
griechischen  Chors  schwebte  ihm  (Herder)  vor  Augen,  und 
sofort  ist  'Admetus  Haus,'  wie  dessen  fruhere  Sch western, 
Ariadne  und  der  entfesselte  Prometheus,  Versuch  das  grie- 
chische  Drama  auf  deutschen  Boden  zu  verpflanzen."  Herder's 
plays  have,  however,  little  significance  in  the  development  of 
the  German  drama,  for  they  are  little  more  than  paraphrases 
of  the  Greek  originals. 

The  nineteenth  century  ushered  in  the  Romantic  period, 
and  the  Greek  poets  were  forgotten  in  enthusiasm  for  the 

6  3  Sammtliche  Werke,  Stuttgart,  1853,  Vol.  XXIV,  p.  318. 

6<  Ibid.,  Vol.  XXI,  p.  390.  's  Ibid.,  Vol.  XVIII,  p.  247. 

66 "  Bei  den  Griechen  war  die  lyrische  Poesie  nichts  anders  als  ein  Schwung 
der  Empfindung  durch  mancherlei  Tone."  Ibid.,  Vol.  XXII,  p.  10. 

6 7  "Der  Chor  war  allein  fur  die  Musik  eingerichtet."  Ibid.,  Vol.  XXII, 
p.  197.  68  Ibid.,  Vol.  XV,  pp.  93-204. 


8o 

Middle  Ages.  In  this  period  only  a  few  experiments  with 
the  antique  chorus  are  found.  The  Schlegel  brothers,  both 
of  whom  were  classical  scholars,  made  unsuccessful  attempts  to 
imitate  Greek  tragedy;  Aug.  W.  Schlegel  in  his  "Ion"  based 
upon  the  "Ion"  of  Euripides,  and  his  brother  in  "Alarcos." 
There  is  no  chorus  in  "Ion,"  but  in  Act  II,  sc.  i,  the  song 
sung  by  Ion  is  in  the  form  of  the  Greek  choral  ode  with  Strophe, 
Gegenstrophe  and  Nachlass.  In  1826  the  satiric  comedies  of 
Graf  von  Platen  appeared.  They  are  skilful  imitations  of  the 
Aristophanean  comedies,  with  choruses  in  the  manner  of  the 
Old  Greek  Comedy.  "Die  verhangnissvolle  Gabel"  was 
directed  against  the  writers  of  the  fate- tragedies,  while  "Der 
romantische  Oedipus"  (1827),  in  which  there  is  a  chorus  of 
sheep,  was  an  attack  upon  Immermann. 

Finally  in  1827  came  that  magnificent  union  of  the  Classic 
and  the  Romantic,  the  Helena  episode  in  the  second  part  of 
"Faust."  Goethe  wished  the  first  part  to  be  performed  as  a 
tragedy  and  the  second  as  an  opera;69  intending  thus  to  bring 
the  dignity  and  calm  of  classicism  into  sharp  contrast  with 
the  reckless  unrestraint  of  romanticism.  The  third  act  opens 
as  Helena,  accompanied  by  a  chorus  of  captive  Trojan  maidens, 
stands  before  the  palace  of  Menelaus  in  Sparta.  Although 
Goethe  does  not  follow  the  classical  technic  in  all  its  details, 
the  first  part,  as  far  as  1.  9i8i,7°is  written  entirely  in  the  spirit 
of  a  Greek  tragedy.  The  severely  classical  character  of  the 
interlude  ceases,  however,  with  the  entrance  of  Faust,  and  for 
the  remainder  of  the  scene  the  antique  and  the  medieval  are 
represented  side  by  side.  In  the  second  part  the  scene  is  laid 
in  Arcadia  and  the  action  is  romantic  throughout. 

Goethe  follows  Aeschylus  closely  in  his  treatment  of  the 
chorus.  To  a  slight  degree  the  influence  of  Sophocles  is  also 
apparent.  The  chorus  is  on  the  stage  throughout  the  whole 
act.  It  takes  an  active  part  in  the  dialogue  and  is  an  import- 
ant factor  in  the  development  of  the  action.  The  choral  odes 
are  either  closely  related  to  the  dialogue,  or  are  in  the  nature 

6»  Cf.  Eckermann,  Gesprdche  mit  Goethe,  January  29,  1827.  Edited  by 
Biedermann,  Leipzig,  1890,  Vol.  VI,  p.  38. 

7°  Goethe's  Faust,  edited  by  C.  Thomas,  Boston,  1905,  Part  II. 


8i 

of  comment  upon  the  events  that  are  taking  place.  Three  of 
the  odes  are  addressed  directly  to  Phorkyas.  In  the  second 
ode,71  after  the  chorus  has  described  the  burning  of  Troy,  it 
turns  to  Phorkyas  with  the  question:  "Welche  von  Phorkys 
Tochtern  nur  bist  du?"72  and  for  the  remainder  of  the  ode 
speaks  directly  to  her.  After  Helena  swoons,  the  chorus 
addresses  the  ode  beginning,  "Schweige,  schweige!"73  to  Phor- 
kyas, as  it  also  does  the  ode  on  Hermes.74  The  character  of 
the  chorus  does  not  change  with  the  transference  of  the  scene 
to  the  medieval  castle  of  Faust.  Even  in  the  second  part 
where  the  action  is  represented  as  taking  place  in  Arcadia, 
its  antique  nature  is  retained  for  a  short  time.75  The  ode  in 
which  the  chorus  describes  the  cleverness  of  the  child  Hermes, 
when  Phorkyas  tells  them  of  the  birth  of  Euphorion,  is  splendid 
in  its  closeness  to  the  spirit  of  the  Sophoclean  choral  songs. 

Goethe's  conception  of  the  third  act  naturally  affected  his 
treatment  of  the  chorus.  He  intended  that  Euphorion  should 
"express,  in  his  very  personality,  the  infectious  spell  of  song," 76 
and  that  this  might  be  most  effectively  carried  out,  the  action 
from  his  appearance  to  his  death  had  to  be  cast  in  the  form  of 
opera.  The  antique  elements,  accordingly,  disappear  entirely, 
"for  music,  as  'art  of  the  infinite,'  .  .  .is  pre-eminently 
the  romantic  art."77  In  the  first  part,  the  Trojan  maidens 
are  giddy,  thoughtless  and  fearful  of  danger,  reminding  us 
of  the  chorus  of  maidens  in  the  "Seven  against  Thebes." 
These  characteristics  they  retain,  but  after  the  appearance  of 
Euphorion,  they  no  longer  speak  in  antique  meter.  They 
sing  instead  choral  odes  in  the  rimed  stanzas  that  Goethe 
makes  symbolic  of  romantic  poetry.  They  sing  and  dance 
with  Euphorion  and  the  stately  antique  chorus  becomes  for 
a  time  the  gay  bright  chorus  of  the  opera.  At  first  their  song 
is  one  of  gladness,  but  when  they  see  Euphorion  climbing 

7*  LI.  8697-8754.     Goethe  was  influenced  by  Virgil's  description  of  the 
burning  of  Troy.     (Aen.  Bk.  2, 11.  310  ff.)  in  the  writing  of  this  ode. 
7*  LI.  8728-8729.  73  LI.  8882-8908. 

74  LI.  9629-9678.  7s  Until  1.  9678. 

?6  C.  Thomas,  op,  cit.t  Introduction  to  Faust,  Part  II,  p.  xxiv. 

77  Ibid. 

6 


82 

higher  and  higher  with  ever-increasing  danger  to  himself, 
their  joy  gives  way  to  anxiety,  and  as  he  suddenly  falls  at  the 
feet  of  Helena  and  Faust,  their  song  becomes  a  lament 
(Goethe's  beautiful  tribute  to  the  memory  of  Lord  Byron). 
Goethe  himself  realized  the  abrupt  change  in  the  character 
of  the  chorus  at  this  point.  "Der  Chor,"  he  said  to  Ecker- 
mann,78  "fallt  bei  dem  Trauergesang  ganz  aus  der  Rolle.  Er 
ist  fruher  und  durchgehends  antik  gehalten  oder  verleugnet 
doch  nie  seine  Madchennatur,  hier  aber  wird  er  mit  einem  Mai 
ernst  und  hoch  reflectirend  und  spricht  Dinge  aus,  woran  er 
nie  gedacht  hat  und  auch  nie  hat  denken  konnen." 

After  the  death  of  Euphorion  the  chorus  resumes  its  antique 
character.  The  leader  Panthalis  follows  Helena  back  to 
Orcus,  but  the  other  Trojan  maidens,  not  wishing  to  return 
to  the  realm  of  shades,  prefer  to  give  up  their  own  individuality 
and  become  identified  with  nature's  elements.  The  lyric 
passages  (except  those  in  the  Euphorion  scene)  are  in  antique 
meter,  such  as  the  anapestic,  choriambic  and  glyconic,  for 
Goethe  did  not  attempt  to  imitate  the  strict  metrical  form. 
"His  principle  was  to  reproduce  the  effect  of  the  Greek  measure, 
but  to  avoid  metrical  pedantry  in  adapting  it  to  the  German 
language."79 

With  the  era  of  Romanticism  the  history  of  the  chorus  in 
the  spoken  drama  comes  to  an  end. 8o  The  attempts  of  Schiller 
and  Goethe  to  vitalize  the  chorus  had  not  been  successful. 
What  the  great  poets  could  not  accomplish  was  beyond  the 
power  of  their  less  gifted  successors,  and  the  chorus  was,  ac- 
cordingly, disregarded  entirely.  The  creative  writers  made 
no  further  effort  to  use  it,  and  the  theorists  and  philosophers 
in  discussing  its  significance  referred  to  it  as  an  art-form  that 
had  outgrown  its  need  and  had  passed  away.  A  few  years 

78  July  5,  1827.     Cf.  Biedermann,  op.  cit.t  Vol.  VI,  p.  153. 

»» C.  Thomas,  op.  cit.,  Notes  to  Faust,  Part  II,  p.  410. 

80  The  only  case,  to  my  knowledge,  in  contemporary  drama,  in  which 
there  is  even  a  suggestion  of  the  classic  chorus,  is  the  Odipus  und  die  Sphinx 
by  Hugo  von  Hofmannsthal.  In  this  play  he  introduces  "die  Stimmen 
der  Ahnen,"  spirits  that  are  not  seen,  but  which  comment  upon  the  action, 
and  thus  to  a  certain  extent  perform  the  function  of  the  old  chorus. 


83 

after  the  appearance  of  the  "  Braut  von  Messina,"81  August  W. 
Schlegel,  in  referring  to  the  attempts  to  use  the  chorus  in  the 
modern  drama,  said:82  "Neuere  Dichter,  und  zwar  vom  ersten 
Range,  haben  haufig  versucht,  den  Chor  in  ihren  Stucken 
anzubringen,  meistens  ohne  einen  rechten,  und  besonders 
ohne  einen  lebendigen  Begriff  von  seiner  Bestimmung.  Aber 
wir  haben  keinen  angemessenen  Gesang  und  Tanz,  wir  haben 
auch  bei  der  Verfassung  unserer  Buhne  keinen  schicklichen 
Platz  fur  ihn,  und  es  wird  daher  schwerlich  gelingen,  ihn  je 
einheimisch  unter  uns  zu  machen.  Uberhaupt  mochte  wohl 
die  griechische  Tragodie  in  ganz  unveranderter  Gestalt  fur 
unsre  heutigen  Theater  immer  eine  auslandische  Pflanze 
bleiben,  der  man  kaum  im  Treibhause  gelehrter  Kunstiibung 
einiges  Gedeihen  versprechen  darf.  Der  Stoff  der  alten 
Tragodie,  die  griechische  Mythologie,  ist  der  Denkart  und 
Einbildungskraft  der  meisten  Zuschauer  eben  so  fremd,  als 
deren  Form  und  theatralische  Darstellungsweise.  Einen  ganz 
andern  Stoff,  aber,  z.  B.  einen  historischen  in  jene  Form 
zwangen  zu  wollen,  ist  ein  misslicher  Versuch." 

Hegel83  also  discusses  the  question  of  whether  the  chorus 
should  be  used  in  modern  tragedy.  Many  dramatists  have  felt 
the  need,  he  says,  of  "solch  einer  substantiellen  Grundlage," 
but  have  been  unsuccessful  in  their  attempts  to  use  it,  because 
they  have  never  understood  the  essential  significance  of  the 
chorus  in  Greek  tragedy.  To  Hegel  the  chorus  was  udas 
substantielle  hohere,  von  falschen  Konflikten  abmahnende, 
den  Ausgang  bedenkende  Bewusstsein."  ".  .  .  er  ist  die 
wirkliche  Substanz  des  sittlichen  heroischen  Lebens  und 
Handelns  selbst,  den  einzelnen  Heroen  gegenuber  das  Volk 
als  das  fruchtbare  Erdreich,  aus  welchem  die  Individuen,  wie 
die  B  lumen  und  hervorragenden  Baume  aus  ihrem  eigenen 
heimischen  Boden,  emporwachsen,  und  durch  die  Existenz 
desselben  bedingt  sind. ' '  The  chorus  has  no  part  in  the  action, 

81  The  exact  date  in  1808. 

82  Vorlesungen  uber  dramatische  Kunst    und  Litter  atur,    edited  by  E. 
Bdcking,  Leipzig,  1846,  Vol.  V.  Part  I,  pp.  78-79. 

83  Werke,   Vol.  X,  Part  3,  pp.  547  ff.      (Vollstandige  Ausgabe  durch 
einen  Verein  von  Freunden  des  Verewigten,  Berlin,  1838.) 


84 

"sondern  spricht  nur  theoretisch  sein  Urtheil."  The  chorus 
was  an  essential  part  of  Greek  tragedy ;  ' '  wie  das  Theater  selbst 
seinen  aussern  Boden,  seine  Scene  und  Umgebung  hat,  so  ist 
der  Chor,  das  Volk,  gleichsam  die  geistige  Scene."  Modern 
tragedy,  however,  does  not  need  the  chorus,"  da  ihre  Handlun- 
gen  nicht  auf  diesem  substantiellen  Grunde,  sondern  auf  dem 
subjektiven  Willen  und  Charakter,  sowie  auf  dem  scheinbar 
ausserlichen  Zufall  der  Begebenheiten  und  Umstande  beruhn." 
In  Greek  tragedy  "der  Chor  gehort  wesentlich  zur  dramatis- 
chen  Handlung. "  But  it  is  not  a  vital  part  of  the  modern  drama 
and  "iiberhaupt  kann  er  da  nicht  seine  rechte  Stelle  finden, 
wo  es  sich  um  partikulare  Leidenschaften,  Zwecke  und  Charak- 
tere  handelt,  oder  die  Intrigue  ihr  Spiel  zu  treiben  hat."84 

The  chorus  had,  however,  not  entirely  passed  away.  It 
would  indeed  be  strange  if  the  efforts  of  centuries  were  to 
cease  without  any  solution  of  the  problem.  The  chorus  in 
the  spoken  drama  had  failed,  and  yet  there  are  in  this  drama 
hints  of  the  solution  that  was  eventually  to  come  from  another 
direction.  The  lyric  monologues  in  ' ' Wallenstein, "  "Maria 
Stuart,"  "Iphigenie"  and  "Faust,"  all  of  which  reflect  the 
tendency  to  enlist  the  power  of  music,  or  at  least  of  the  lyric 
element,  to  increase  the  effect  of  the  spoken  drama,85  point  to 
the  fact  that  the  dramatists  of  the  classic  period  were  looking 
forward  to  a  new  art-form  in  which  music  should  have  a  nec- 
essary part.  In  fact,  many  poets,  as  Lessing,86  Goethe  and 
Schiller,  felt  that  the  ideal  of  the  drama  was  to  be  found  in  the 
opera.  Although  it  was  impossible  for  the  choral  passages  of 
the  "  Braut  von  Messina  "  to  be  sung  when  the  rest  of  the  drama 
was  declaimed,  Schiller  seems  to  have  had  a  premonition  of 
the  final  solution  of  the  dramatic  problem,  when  he  wrote:87 

8«  Ibid.,  p.  550. 

8  *  The  writers  of  the  recent  symbolic  dramas  felt  the  power  of  the  lyric 
element  and  introduced  songs  into  their  plays.  Cf.  G.  Hauptmann,  Die 
versunkene  Glocke,  Hanneles  Himmelfahrt.  Also,  H.  Sudermann,  Die  drei 
Reiherfedern. 

86  Cf .  R.  Wagner,  Zukunftsmusik  (Gesammelte  Schriften  und  Dichtungen, 
Leipzig,  1873,  Vol.  VII,  p.  140). 

<"  Cf.  Letter  to  Goethe,  December  29,  1797.  (Schillers  Briefe,  Vol.  V, 
P.  3I3-) 


85 

"Ich  hatte  immer  ein  gewisses  Vertrauen  zur  Oper,  dass  aus 
ihr  wie  aus  den  Choren  des  alten  Bacchusfestes  das  Trauer- 
spiel  in  einer  edlern  Gestalt  sich  loswickeln  sollte."  In  prac- 
tice Goethe  went  even  further  than  Schiller,  for  the  second 
part  of  the  Helena  episode  is  partly  in  operatic  form. 

These  men  were,  however,  poets  and  not  musicians.  For 
that  reason  they  could  not  put  their  theories  into  practice, 
and  it  was  not  until  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  that 
the  problem  was  solved  by  the  dramatist  and  composer, 
Richard  Wagner.88  He  realized  that  the  highest  development 
of  the  drama  could  not  be  found  in  the  opera  as  it  existed  at 
that  time,89  for  the  opera  had  become  a  purely  musical  creation 
in  which  the  dramatic  action  had  little  significance  beyond 
that  of  connecting  the  various  vocal  selections.90  A  study  of 
Greek  tragedy,  in  which  both  the  music  and  the  dance  were 

88  Cf.  Zukunftsmusik. 

8 '  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Herder  foreshadows  the  reform  of  the  opera 
later  undertaken  by  R.  Wagner,  and  the  rise  of  the  music  drama.  He 
says:  "Der  Fortgang  des  Jahrhunderts  wird  uns  auf  einen  Mann  fuhren, 
der,  diesen  Trodelkram  wortloser  Tone  verachtend,  die  Notwendigkeit 
einer  innigen  Verknupfung  reinmenschlicher  Empfindung  und  der  Fabel 
selbst  mit  seinen  T6nen  einsah.  Von  jener  Herrscherhohe,  auf  welcher 
sich  der  gemeine  Musikus  brustet,  dass  die  Poesie  seiner  Kunst  diene,  stieg 
er  hinab  und  liess,  soweit  es  der  Geschmack  der  Nation,  fur  die  er  in  Tonen 
dichtete,  zuliess,  den  Worten  der  Empfindung,  der  Handlung  selbst  seine 
Tone  nur  dienen.  Dass  er  namlich  die  ganze  Bude  des  zerschnittenen  und 
zerfetzten  Opern-Klingklangs  umwerfe,  und  ein  Odeum  auf richte,  ein  zusam- 
menhangend  lyrisches  Gebaude,  in  welchem  Poesie,  Musik,  Action,  Deco- 
ration Bins  sind."  (Werke,  Vol.  XXI,  p.  390.) 

90  Opera  was  the  outcome  of  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Italian  scholars 
of  the  sixteenth  century  to  revive  Greek  tragedy.  (Cf .  Baltzell,  History  of 
Music,  Philadelphia,  1910,  p.  177.)  But  in  spite  of  its  literary  origin,  the 
development  of  the  Italian  opera  and  of  the  German,  which  was  closely 
modeled  upon  the  Italian,  brought  the  purely  musical  element  to  the  fore; 
the  dramatic  significance  was  entirely  obscured  and  the  opera  became  a 
puppet-show  for  the  display  of  vocal  art.  (Cf.  Baltzell,  op.  cit.t  p.  215.) 
Because  of  the  purely  musical  development  of  the  opera  in  Germany,  it 
does  not  seem  necessary  to  discuss  in  this  essay  the  chorus  in  the  opera. 
Wagner,  however,  by  going  back  to  the  original  conception  of  opera  as 
a  drama,  appears  as  the  creator  of  a  new  art  construction,  the  lyric  drama, 
and  must  accordingly,  be  considered  as  a  dramatist  rather  than  as  an 
operatic  composer. 


86 

subservient  to  the  poetry, 9 1  suggested  to  his  mind  the  possibility 
of  an  art-work  in  which  the  drama  should  be  of  paramount 
importance  and  should  of  itself  form  a  complete  whole,  and  in 
which  the  music  should  be,  as  it  were,  a  flexible  and  unceasing 
current  accompanying  and  at  the  same  time  intensifying  and 
interpreting  the  meaning  of  the  words.92  In  such  a  drama,  in 
which  music  is  employed  to  increase  the  effect  of  the  dramatic 
action,  the  "poet's  message  will  be  conveyed  directly  to  the 
feelings  as  emotion  and  not  to  the  understanding  as  thought." 
Consequently,  the  deepest  and  the  most  profound  truths  will, 
Wagner  claims,  produce  so  irresistible  and  so  convincing  an 
impression  at  the  moment  of  the  stage  performance  that 
all  reflective  criticism  will  become  unnecessary.93  And  to 
Wagner's  mind  "the  ideal  art-form  is  that  which  can  be 
grasped  without  a  shadow  of  reflection  and  through  which 
the  poet's  lesson  can  be  most  clearly  conveyed  to  the  unim- 
peded feeling."94 

A  presentation  of  this  ideal  or  music-drama  is  rendered 
possible  by  the  orchestra  as  elaborated  and  developed  by 
Beethoven.  The  r61e  played  by  the  orchestra  is  much  the 
same  as  that  played  by  the  chorus  in  the  Greek  tragedy.95 
A  comparison  of  the  antique  chorus  of  human  beings  and  the 
modern  orchestra  of  stringed  instruments  may,  at  first  sight, 
appear  impossible.  The  purely  human  significance  of  the 
chorus  was,  however,  entirely  disregarded  by  Wagner.96  He 
was  concerned  merely  with  the  ideal  aspect  of  the  chorus ;  and 
since  the  chorus,  in  its  ideal  aspect,  is  "not  an  individual  but 
a  universal  conception,"97  it  may,  logically,  be  as  well  repre- 

»x  Cf.  supra,  p.  5. 

9 "This  new  creation  he  called  the  music-drama  in  distinction  from  the 
opera.  Cf.  Zukunftsmusik,  p.  179. 

"  Ibid.,  pp.  124-125.  94  ibid.,  p.  172.  95  Ibid.,  pp.  172-173. 

»6  The  Sophoclean  chorus,  it  will  be  remembered,  had  a  dual  character. 
In  the  dialogue  it  represented  the  ordinary  mass  of  human  beings  as  opposed 
to  the  heroic  figures  upon  the  stage;  and  in  the  choral  odes  it  had  an  ideal 
character  and  became,  as  it  were,  the  mouthpiece  of  the  poet.  It  is  the 
ideal  and  not  the  human  aspect  of  the  chorus  that  is  represented  by  Wagner's 
orchestra. 

9i  Cf.  Schiller,  Uber  den  Gebrauch  des  Chors  in  der  Tragodie,  p.  129. 


87 

sen  ted  by  the  orchestra  as  by  a  group  of  individuals.  At  any 
rate  the  orchestra  performs  the  essential  function  of  the  chorus; 
a  function  which,  as  Schiller  rightly  maintains,  has  never  been 
given  to  any  chorus  since  the  decline  of  the  antique  tragedy, 
that  of  a  "  single  ideal  person,  furthering  and  accompanying 
the  whole  plot."98  Like  the  Greek  chorus,  the  orchestra  is 
always  present  and  has  its  position  off  the  stage,"  and  like  the 
Greek  chorus  it  follows  the  events  upon  the  stage  with  keen 
interest.  The  orchestra  also  serves  to  direct  the  feelings, 
for  by  means  of  the  "  Leitmotiv  "I0°  the  music  is  able  to  reflect 
everything  that  takes  place  upon  the  stage ;  the  slightest  alter- 
ation of  scenic  effect,  the  slightest  change  of  mood,  in  fact, 
every  phase  in  the  psychological  development  of  the  action 
has  its  orchestral  response,  and,  as  did  the  old  chorus,  the 
orchestra  is  thus  enabled  to  furnish  a  continuous  comment 
upon  the  action;  for,  "although  music  cannot  think,  the 
'  Leitmotiv '  can  produce  a  definite  impression  upon  the  feel- 
ings and  incite  them  to  a  function  akin  to  thought."101  Thus 
the  ' '  ideal  interest  of  the  chorus  in  the  action  passes  completely 
to  the  orchestra  and  is  there  manifested  in  continual  but 
never  troubling  presence."102 

But  if  the  ideal  aspect  of  the  chorus  is  assumed  by  the 
orchestra,  what  then  becomes  of  the  old  Greek  chorus  that  had 
been  taken  over  into  the  opera  by  the  Italian  musicians  of  the 
sixteenth  century  ?  This  chorus  went  the  way  of  the  opera  and 
soon  came  to  have  practically  no  significance  beyond  that  of 
a  group  of  singers.  When  in  the  nineteenth  century  Wagner 
undertook  his  reform  of  the  opera,  the  chorus  occupied  an 
important  place  upon  the  operatic  stage.  But  it  had  entirely 
lost  the  significance  of  its  antique  prototype  and,  since  there 
was  no  room  in  the  economy  of  the  lyric  drama  for  characters 


**  Ibid.,  p.  131. 

"Cf.  Zukunfamusik,  p.  172. 

100  The  "Leitmotiv"  is  a  definite  musical  phrase  associated  with  each 
important  character  or  event  in  the  drama,  and  can  be  used  to  call  to  mind 
the  idea  which  it  represents  at  any  time  during  the  course  of  the  action. 

101  Cf.  R.  Wagner,  Oper  und  Drama,  Vol.  IV,  p.  231. 
IoaCf.  Zukunftsmusik,  p.  173. 


88 

that  had  no  part  in  the  development  of  the  action,  it  was 
banished  save  as  an  active  personage  in  the  plot,  and  in  the 
Wagnerian  dramas  it  appears  on  the  stage  only  when  its  pre- 
sence as  such  is  required:  as  chorus  of  maidens  in  "Parzival," 
chorus  of  Walkyrs  in  "Die  Walktire, "  or  the  chorus  of  pilgrims 
in  "Tannhauser." 

The  orchestra  has,  however,  a  far  more  vital  and  more  es- 
sential duty  than  that  of  reflecting  the  lyric  and  dramatic 
elements  of  the  action.  It  has  an  important  share  in  the  psy- 
chological development  of  the  plot.  In  this  r61e  it  accompanies 
the  dramatic  action;  and  whenever  the  action  itself  is  not  fully 
intelligible  it  conveys  to  the  feelings  the  full  significance  of 
that  action  and  thus  takes  the  place  of  thought.103  Thus, 
"while  the  orchestra  as  the  harmonic  carrier  of  the  verse- 
melody  alone  confers  upon  the  melody  its  definite  expression, 
it,  at  the  same  time,  keeps  the  melody  in  the  requisite  unceas- 
ing flow  and  thus  convincingly  impresses  the  inner  motives 
of  the  dramatic  action  upon  the  feelings. " '  ° 4  This  is  Wagner's 
"endless  melody."  The  orchestra  by  unceasingly  supporting 
and  explaining  the  action,  has  an  unbroken  share  in  the  dra- 
matic action  and  succeeds  in  uniting  the  poetry  and  the  music 
into  one  complete  whole. 

The  antique  chorus  appealed  primarily  to  the  intellect,  for 
the  lyric  portions  of  the  Greek  drama  contained  the  prof ound- 
est  thoughts  of  the  whole  composition;  but  it  also  appealed 
to  the  emotions  through  music  and  the  rhythmic  move- 
ments of  the  dance.  "The  modern  orchestra  has,  however, 
assumed  merely  the  emotional  significance  of  the  old  chorus." IOS 
The  antique  chorus  by  its  meditations  lifts  the  mind  above 
the  confusion  and  turmoil  of  passing  events  to  a  contemplation 
of  the  great  truths  which  the  drama  seeks  to  teach  and  thus, 
through  thought,  appeals  to  the  understanding;  whereas  the 
orchestra  by  supplying  the  musical  accompaniment  for  the 
words,  and  guiding  the  feelings  along  definite  lines,  conveys 
the  teaching  of  the  drama  directly  to  the  listener's  emotions 
and  itself  takes  the  place  of  thought. 

'°3  Cf.  Oper  und  Drama,  p.  222.  10<  Zukunftsmusik,  p.  172. 

los  Oper  und  Drama,  p.  238. 


89 

This,  then,  is  the  final  solution  of  the  problem.  For  here 
and  here  only,  when  the  chorus  finds  its  proper  medium  of 
expression;  when  all  the  sensuous  charm  of  the  orchestration 
is  employed  for  the  express  purpose  of  intensifying  the  dra- 
matic emotion,  does  the  chorus  most  nearly  approach  its  ancient 
prototype  and  truly  come  to  its  own. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Aristotle.     Poetics.     Edited  by  S.  Butcher.     London,  1902. 

Bahlmann,  Paul.  Die  lateinischen  Dramen  von  Wimphe- 
lings  Stylpho  bis  zur  mitte  des  16.  Jahrhunderts : 
1480-1550.  Munster,  1893. 

Bahlmann,  Paul.  Das  Drama  der  Jesuiten.  Euphorion, 
1895,  Vol.  II,  pp.  271-294. 

Baltzell,  W.  J.     A  History  of  Music.     Philadelphia,  1910. 

Bellermann,  Ludwig.  Schillers  Dramen.  Vol.  III.  Berlin, 
1908. 

Birck,  Sixt.  Susanna  (1532,  German).  Edited  by  J.  Bach- 
told.  Schweizerische  Schauspiele  des  16.  Jahrhunderts. 
Vol.  II.  Zurich,  1891. 

Birck,  Sixt.  Susanna  (1537,  Latin).  Edited  by  J.  Bolte. 
Lateinische  Litteraturdenkmaler  des  XV.  und  XVI. 
Jahrhunderts.  Vol.  VIII.  Berlin,  1891. 

Bohme,  Franz  Magnus.  Geschichte  des  Tanzes  in  Deutsch- 
land.  Vol.  I.  Leipzig,  1886. 

Borinski,  Karl.  Die  Poetik  der  Renaissance  und  die  Anfange 
der  literarischen  Kritik  in  Deutschland.  Berlin,  1886. 

Bulthaupt,  Heinrich.  Dramaturgie  des  Schauspieles.  Leip- 
zig, 1893. 

Butler,  Harold  Edgeworth.  Post-Augustan  Poetry  from 
Seneca  to  Juvenal.  Oxford,  1909. 

Campbell,  Lewis.    A  Guide  to  Greek  Tragedy.    London,  1891 . 

Chassang,  Alexis.  Des  essais  dramatiques  unite's  de  1'anti- 
quit<§  au  XIVe  et  au  XVe  siecle.  Paris,  1852. 

Cunliffe,  John  William.  The  Influence  of  Seneca  on  Eliza- 
bethan Tragedy.  London,  1893. 

Cunliffe,  John  William.  Early  French  Tragedy.  Journal  of 
Comparative  Literature.  1903,  Vol.  I. 

Creizenach,    W.     Geschichte   des   neueren    Dramas.     Halle, 

1893-1904. 

90 


Creizenach,  W.     Die  Schauspiele  der  englischen  Komodianten. 

Kurschners  Deutsche  Nationalliteratur.     Vol.  23. 
Diomedes.     Ars  Grammatica.     Edited  by  Keil,  Grammatici 

Latini.     Leipzig,  1857. 
Faguet,  Emile.     Histoire  de  la  litterature  francaise.     Vol.  I. 

Paris,  1894. 
Fournier,    Edouard.      Le   theatre   frangais   au   XVP   et   au 

XVIPsiecle.     Paris,  1871. 

Freytag,  Gustav.     Die  Technik  des  Dramas.     Leipzig,  1890. 
Froning,   Richard.     Das   Drama  des  Mittelalters.     Kursch- 
ners Deutsche  Nationalliteratur.     Vol.  14. 
Gart,  Thiebold.     Joseph  (1540) .     Edited  by  E.  Martin  and  E. 

Schmidt.       Elsassische    Litteraturdenkmaler    aus     dem 

XIV-XVII  Jahrhundert.     Vol.  II.     Strassburg,  1880. 
Geiger,    Ludwig.     Johann   Reuchlin,   sein   Leben  und   seine 

Werke.     Leipzig,  1871. 
Geiger,   Ludwig.     Renaissance  und  Humanismus  in  Italien 

und  Deutschland.     Berlin,  1882. 
Gerlinger,  J.  Baptist.     Die  griechischen  Elemente  in  Schil- 

lers  Braut  von  Messina.     Augsburg,  1858. 
Gervinus,    Georg.        Geschichte    der    deutschen    Dichtung. 

Edited  by  Karl  Bartsch.  5  vols.     Leipzig,  1871-74. 
Gnapheus,  Gulielmus.     Acolastus  sive  de  filio  prodigo  (1529). 

Edited  by  J.    Bolte.      Lateinische   Litteraturdenkmaler 

des  XV.  und  XVI.     Jahrhunderts.     Vol.  I.     Berlin,  1891 . 
Goedeke,    Karl.     Grundriss    zur    Geschichte    der    deutschen 

Dichtung.     Dresden,  1884-1900. 
Goethe's  Faust.    Part  II.    Edited  by  Calvin  Thomas.    Boston, 

1905 
Goethes    Gesprache.      Edited    by    Biedermann.      Vol.    VI. 

Leipzig,    1890. 
Gottsched,  Joh.  Christ.     Versuch  einer  critischen  Dichtkunst 

fur  Deutsche.     Leipzig,  1737. 
Grucker,  Emil.     Histoire  des  doctrines  litteraires  et  esthe*- 

tiques   en    Allemagne:     Opitz,    Leibniz,    Gottsched,    les 

Suisses.     Paris,  1883-96. 
Gryphius,    Andreas.     Trauerspiele.     Edited    by    H.    Palm. 

Tubingen,  1882. 


92 

Haigh,  Arthur  Elam.     The  Attic  Theatre.     Oxford,  1907. 
Hairing,    Willi.     Andreas    Gryphius    und    das    Drama    der 

Jesuiten.     Halle,  1907.     (Dissertation.) 
Hegel,     Georg    Wilhelm    Friedrich.     Vollstandige    Ausgabe 

durch    einen    Verein    von    Freunden    des    Verewigten. 

Berlin,  1838. 
Heinzel,  Richard.     Beschreibung  des  geistlichen  Schauspiels 

im  deutschen  Mittelalter.     Beitrage  zur  Asthetik.     Vol. 

IV.     Hamburg,  1898. 
Herder,  Johann  Gottfried.     Sammtliche  Werke.     Vols.  XIV- 

XXIV.     Stuttgart,  1853. 

Herford,  Charles.     Studies  in  the  Literary  Relations  of  Eng- 
land and  Germany  in  the  i6th  Century.     Cambridge, 

1886. 
Holstein,     Hugo.     Die    Reformation    im    Spiegelbilde    der 

dramatischen  Litteratur  des  16.     Jahrhunderts.     In  den 

Schriften  des  Vereins  fur  Reformationsgeschichte.     Bd. 

14  u.  15.     Halle,  1886. 

Horace.     Ars  Poetica.  Edited  by  J.  Kirkland.     Boston,  1901. 
Huebner,  Bernhard.     Die  kleineren  Dichtungen  und  Dramen 

des  Prodromus  Poeticus  von  Aug.  Ad.  von  Haugwitz. 

Neuwied,  1893. 
Koberstein,   August.      Geschichte  der  deutschen   National  - 

literatur.     Leipzig,  1872-73. 
Kollewijn,   Roeland.     Uber  den   Einfluss  des  hollandischen 

Dramas  auf  Andreas  Gryphius.     Heilbronn. 
Kolross,  Johannes.     Fiinferlei  Betrachtnisse  (1532).     Edited 

by    J.    Bach  told.     Schweizerische    Schauspiele    des    16. 

Jahrhunderts.     Vol.  I.     Zurich,  1890. 
Kriiger,  Bartholomaus.     Action  von  dem  Anfang  und  Ende 

der   Welt.     Edited   by   J.    Tittmann.     Schauspiele   aus 

dem  sechzehnten  Jahrhundert.  Vol.  II.  Leipzig,  1868. 
Lange,  Carl.  Die  lateinischen  Osterfeiern.  Munchen,  1887. 
Lawton,  William.  Three  Dramas  of  Euripides.  Boston, 

1889. 
Lilienkron,   R.   von.     Die  Chorgesange  des  lateinisch-deut- 

schen    Schuldramas    im     XVI.     Jahrhundert.     In    der 

Vierteljahrschrift    fur    Musikwissenschaft    VI     (1890). 


93 

Lohenstein,  Casper  von.     Cleopatra.     Edited  by  F.  Bober- 

tag.     Kiirschners  Deutsche  Nationalliteratur.     Vol.  36. 
Macropedius,  Georgius.     Aluta  and  Rebelles  (1535).  Edited 

by  J.  Bolte.     Lateinische  Litteraturdenkmaler  des  XV. 

und  XVI.  Jahrhunderts.     Vol.  13.     Berlin,  1897. 
Manuel,    Hans    Rudolf.     Weinspiel    (1548).     Edited   by   J. 

Bachtold  and  Ferd.  Vetter.     Bibliothek  alterer  Schrift- 

werke  der  deutschen  Schweiz.    Vol.11.    Frauenf eld,  1877. 
Naogeorgus    (Kirchmayer) .       Incendia    seu    Pyrgopolinices. 

Vitebergae,    1541. 
Niejahr,  Johannes.     Goethe's  "Helena."     Euphorion,  1894. 

Vol.  I,  pp.  81-109. 
Palm,    Hermann.     Beitrage   zur   Geschichte   der   deutschen 

Litteratur  des  16.  und  17.  Jahrhunderts.     Breslau,  1877. 
Peters,    Rudolf.     Schillers    Braut    von   Messina.     Vol.    II. 

Leipzig,  1902. 
Pichler,  Adolf.     Uber  das  Drama  des  Mittelalters  in  Tirol. 

Innsbruck,  1850. 
Popp,  Georg.     Uber  den  Begriff  des  Dramas  in  den  deutschen 

Poetiken  des  17.  Jahrhunderts.     Leipzig,  1895. 
Rebhun,   Paul.     Susanna   (1535).     Edited  by  J.   Tittmann. 

Schauspiele  aus  dem  sechzehnten  Jahrhundert.     Vol.  II. 

Leipzig,  1868. 
Rossler,  Karl  Julius.     Das  Verhaltnis  der  Schillerschen  Braut 

von  Messina  zur  antiken  Tragodie.     Budissin,  1855. 
Ruff,  Jacob.     Das  neue  Tellenspiel   (1545).     Edited  by  J. 

Bachtold.     Schweizerische    Schauspiele    des    16.     Jahr- 
hunderts.    Zurich,  1893. 
Schiller,    Fr.    von.     Braut    von    Messina.     Edited    by    W. 

Carruth.     New  York,  1901. 
Schiller,   Fr.   von.     Uber  den  Gebrauch  des  Chors  in   der 

Tragodie.     Edited  by  W.   Carruth.     New  York,    1901. 
Schillers  Briefe.     Edited  by  F.  Jonas.     Vols.  V-VII.     Stutt- 
gart. 
Schillers  Briefwechsel  mit  Goethe.    4th  ed.  Vol.  II.    Stuttgart, 

1881. 
Schillers  Briefwechsel  mit  Wilhelm  von  Humboldt.      Edited 

by  A.  Leitzmann.     Stuttgart,  1900. 


94 

Schillers  Brief wechsel  mit  K6rner  von  1784  bis  zum  Tode 

Schillers.     Edited    by    K.    Goedeke.     2nd  ed.     Vol.  II. 

Leipzig,  1874. 
Schlegel,  August  Wilhelm.     Vorlesungen  uber  dramatische 

Kunst  und  Litteratur.     Part  I.     Edited  by  E.  Docking. 

Leipzig,  1846. 
Schmidt,  Erich.     Kom6dien  vom  Studentleben  aus  dem  16. 

und  17.  Jahrhundert.     Leipzig,  1880. 

Sellar,  W.  Y.     Roman  Poets  of  the  Republic.     Oxford,  1905. 
Spangenberg,  Wolfhart.     Saul  (1606).     Edited  by  E.   Martin 

and   E.    Schmidt.     Elsassische  Litteraturdenkmaler  aus 

dem  XIV.-XVII.     Jahrhundert.     Vol.  IV.     Strassburg, 

1887. 
Stachel,  Paul.     Seneca  und  das  deutsche  Renaissancedrama. 

Berlin,  1907. 
Thomas,   Calvin.     The  Life  and  Works  of  Schiller.     New 

York,  1902. 
Thomas,  Calvin.     A  History  of  German  Literature.     New 

York,  1909. 
Tunison,  Joseph.     Dramatic  Traditions  of  the  Dark  Ages. 

Chicago,  1907. 
Venzmer,  Berthold.     Die  Ch6re  im  geistlichen  Drama  des 

deutschen   Mittelalters.     Ludwigslust,  1897.     (Disserta- 
tion.) 
Vondel,   Joost  van  den.     De  Werken.     Edited  by  J.   van 

Lennep.     Leiden. 
Wagner,  Richard.     Gesammelte  Schriften  und  Dichtungen. 

Vols.  IV  and  VII.     Leipzig,  1873. 
Waldis,  B.     Der  verlorne  Sohn  (1527).     Edited  by  R.  Fron- 

ing.    Kurschners  Deutsche  Nationalliteratur.   Vol.  XXII. 
Wirth,  Ludwig.     Die  Oster-  und  Passionsspiele  bis  zum  XVI. 

Jahrhundert.     Halle,  1889. 
Zeidler,  Jakob.     Studien  und  Beitrage  zur  Geschichte  der 

Jesuitenkom6die  u.  des  Klosterdramas.    Edited  by  B. 

Litzmann.      Theatergeschichtliche   Forschungen.      Vol. 

IV.     Hamburg,  1891. 
Zeigler,  Hieronymus.     Pedonothia. — 1543. 


INDEX  OF  PROPER  NAMES 

This  index  is  limited  to  the  names  of  those  writers  who  either  used  the 
chorus  themselves  or  referred  to  its  significance  in  the  German  drama. 


^Eschylus,  2 

Agathon,  3 

Apel,  Joh.  Aug.,  78 

Aristotle,  3,  4 

Ast,  G.  Ant.  Fr.,  78 

Bellermann,  Ludwig,  66 

Birck,   Sixt.,   26,    27,   34,   35,   38, 

39.40 

Birken,  56,  57 
Boissin,  Jean  de,  8 
Borinski,  Karl,  30 
Bulthaupt,  Heinrich,  74 

Cronegk,  63 
Diomedes,  29 
Euripides,  3 
Faguet,  E.,  7 

Gamier,  7 

Gart,  37,  40 

Gnapheus,  27,  38 

Goedeke,  K.,  58 

Goethe,  64,  80,  81,  82 

Gottsched,  58,  59,  60,  61 

Greene,  8 

Greff,  30 

Gryphius,  Andreas,  43-54,  61 

Haigh,  A.  E.,  2,  3,  4 
Hallmann,  Joh.  Chr.,  54,  55 
Harsdorfer,  57 
Haugwitz,  Aug.  von,  54 
Hegel,  83 
Herder,  66,  78,  79 
Hoffmeister,  74 
Hooft,  9,  46 
Horace,  57 


Humboldt,  Wilhelm  von,  69,  72, 
75,76 

Iffland,  66 
Jodelle,  7 

Kolross,  Joh.,  26,  33,  34,  38,  39 
Korner,  66 
Kruger,  38,  40 
Kyd,  8 

Lohenstein,  Casper  von,  54,  55 
Lyly,  8 

Macropedius,  25,  31,  32,  38 

Marlowe,  8 

Naogeorgus,  37 
Omeis,  57,  58 

Peele,  8 

Platen,  Graf  von,  80 

Pyra,63 

Rebhun,  Paul,  26,  35,  36,  37,  39 
Reuchlin,  24,  25,  28,  29,  42 

Schiller,  64-78,  85,  87 
Schlegel,  Aug.  W.,  66,  80,  83 
Schlegel,  F.,  66,  80 
Schutz,  Wilh.  von,  78 
Seneca.  5,  6,  47 
Shakespeare,  9 
Sophocles,  3 
Spangenberg,  38 
Stolberg,  Graf  zu,  63 
Suetonius,  29 

Vondel,  9,  47 

Wagner  Richard,  85-89 
Waldis,  Burkard,  26,  32 


95 


VITA 

The  writer  of  this  dissertation  was  born  in  New  Rochelle, 
New  York,  June  16,  1886.  She  received  her  early  education 
in  the  public  schools  of  that  city,  entering  New  Rochelle  High 
School  in  1900.  In  1904  she  matriculated  at  Barnard  College, 
and  was  graduated  in  1908.  In  the  following  year  she  began 
graduate  work  at  Columbia  University,  receiving  the  degree 
of  A.M.  in  1909.  Since  that  time  she  has  continued  work 
for  the  degree  of  Ph.D.  in  the  Germanic  and  the  Classical 
Departments. 


1'NIVKKSITY   UK   CALIFORNIA    LIBRARY 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


OCT  6 


